Curse Of Depravity
by TheOreoLord
Summary: A darker Blake comes to Beacon with a unknown purpose, carrying the weight of her time in the white fang on her back. But what happens when the past continues to haunt you, no matter how hard you try to leave it behind. I'll tell you. You fight it with MAGNIFICENT FIGHTING SPIRIT! Degenerate Weaboo Blake with PTSD.
1. Chapter 1

Blake felt in a word, empty.

She felt Void, completely drained of all life. And she didn't even know why. All was going well. She was easily Acing all her classes at beacon, so why was there this gaping hole so deep in her heart?

As a single video description flashed across her screen, she immediately knew the cause of her depression. There, plain as day, was a video discussing the actions of her favorite _anime. _The word was cruel to behold. Blake only whispered it to herself on cold lonely nights when no one would hear such heresy. Ever since Blake had come to Beacon, she had realized one thing, one irrevocable truth.

She was surrounded, day in and day out,

By filthy Normies.

It had all started when she first arrived here. She was scrolling through some webcomics during the shuttle ride, trying to pass the time. Then out of the blue, some poor boy vomited all over a rather _voluptuous _blonde's shoe. Blake had trouble keeping her eyes off the blonde as her whole body swayed, trying to expel the stomach upchuck from her footwear. She had to keep her eyes to from straying too far into the uncharted territory of said blonde's chest as it heaved back and forth and—

"Stop it Blake. Stop being creepy." She chastised herself.

Then to her extreme horror and perhaps excitement, the blonde came looking for a seat. In her natural shyness and in an attempt to hide the embarrassment of actually being seen looking at the vile stuff of neckbeards and Weaboos alike, _anime_ on her scroll she had seated herself as far away from anyone else as humanly possible. Actually, she was currently looking at a webcomic, but these uninitiated fools would never be able to tell the difference. However, she was now faced with a slight problem…

The Shuttle was already full to begin with, hence why the blonde and her friend were standing up on it. So, there were hardly any spots left available, which meant…

"Hey you, scooch over." Blake heard a heavenly voice grace her unworthy ears as her eyes dared to glance up to view the golden angel coming her way. She moved with a heavenly grace unfitting for mortal eyes, which was only _slightly _beset by the trail of yellow stomach bile she left in her wake.

In no time at all the Angel had sat down upon the same bench which Blake rested on. Was this a dream, how could God be simultaneously so kind and so cruel, to send her down such a gorgeous sculpture of feminine beauty, and simultaneously cursing her with the poorest social skills known to man.

As the blonde's delicate fingers grasped her leg, she felt her breath catch in her mouth and her heart stop. She reached down and looked at her shoelaces, caked with grime and other foul substances. _Was that a hot dog?_

Then, she saw that this Earth Angel was looking at her with her beautiful large lilac eyes, eyes that Blake wanted to get lost in and never escape from.

"Hey, Earth to the girl in black, are you even listening?"

Blake daydream was brought to a screeching holt as she sunk back into the sad backwaters of existence that is known as reality.

"What's the matter?" She had to keep her defenses up, and therefore might have accidently spoken too harshly. She didn't know if these newcomers could be trusted. Sure, the blonde might be as bodacious as Haruhui from season two episode eleven of moon slicers, that episode where the cast all went to the beach and Haruhi expressed her undying love and affection for Zoro, only for Zoro to be assassinated brutally before he could give her his answer and—

"Stop, Blake, Stop. We mustn't get carried away." She again reminded herself.

Still, she gave only the slightest hint of interest with these newcomers into her personal space, her Domain, as she liked to call it. She had to keep away the judgmental eyes and the hateful mouths of the Normies, and this was the best way. Absolute secrecy and a cold demeanor that would ensure her safety, lest she get hurt again.

Blake's eyes brushed over the other girl there, then nearly bulged out of her head.

Standing before her, in all its glory…

Was a bona fide legal Loli.

There was no denying it. The innocent expression, the cute-as-a-button face, the underdeveloped body, it all coalesced into the perfect combination of adorableness and unflowered beauty.

It was then that Blake, with no second thoughts whatsoever of the moral implications of her actions, promised herself that she would completely and wholly corrupt this innocent creature.

Her eyes were beginning to gloss over with evil intention when she noticed the look of hurt over the two girls faces.

The blonde's eyes flashed first with a wave of hurt, obviously affected by Blakes harsh words and tone, then with an explosion of anger, and Blake's heart sank but she sliced those feelings down with her ancient katana of determination, passed down the Belladonna line for generations!

"We were just wondering if you had any napkins or something. The bathrooms are currently full, and I didn't want to let this stuff stay on me any longer than I had to." The blonde spoke with a slight annoyance in her voice, putting another knife deep within Blake's poor beaten soul.

She did in fact have tissues in her bag. She thought for a second, about the pros and cons for showing this human an act of kindness. Would they try to get to know her, to pry into the depravity that was Blake Belladonna? After a second she realized how horrible she was being. To even consider denying someone the most basic of aid when they are in dire need, what would Master Myria think if she were still with us? She reached into her bag and pulled out a neatly wrapped little package of tissues.

The blonde's eyes lit up and Blakes heart soared, so delighted at her mate- I mean- fellow Shuttle riders change in disposition, even more pleased that she was the one that caused such a change.

"Thanks. You're the best." She said grabbing the tissues and ripping open the package. Blake's stomach started turning inside out at the Blonde's words.

"Hehe, no problem." Blake chocked out.

The blonde then propped up her vomit-soaked leg in order to try to clean it, and Blake had to keep from whimpering. Even covered in puke, that thing was a gift sent from god. The kind of leg nations would fight over and bards would sing of for generations to come.

And then when she started rubbing it with that tissue, Blake thought for sure that she would pass out right then and there. Thankfully everyone else seemed to be too occupied to look at Blake's half-lidded lust filled eyes. "_Oh, the things you would say if you knew what those tissues were supposed to be for_." Blake thought.

"NO- stop it, bad girl." Blake mentally chastised herself again, trying to keep her most depraved self in check.

"Yeah, when we first started talking to you I thought you were all mean and stuff but you seem really cool so thanks a lot!" the loli that had accompanied the blonde chimed in, her whole being oozing pure happiness and energy, like some small animal.

"_Some small animal that I will welcome into my home, offering it gifts of treats and lavish comforts. I will fatten it up and gorge it on the illusion of peace and security. Then, once it trusts me and only me wholly and with all its being, I'll shove it in the oven and roast it for dinner as it watches me from within the burning prison with pleading eyes screaming "Why, Why WHY?!" to which I will just laugh as I continue to set the table for my fine meal MUHAHAHAHHA"_

"Jeez when did my fantasies get so dark? I mean, yeah sometimes I like to tread into the bdsm sections of the user submitted stories on the dustnet, but that was just… unwholesome."

Blake almost chuckled to herself, as if she had any right to use that word.

She put her dark musings behind her and just deadpanned to the loli, slightly confused as to why these people were expressing so much gratitude for the simplest of human kindnesses. "It's not a big deal." She wasn't cold with her words, but she wasn't exactly a glorious beam of manly fighting spirit meant to save the cosmos either.

Still, the Loli gave her a bright big smile, a smile so wide and naïve it seemed as if it might burn a hole straight through Blake's depravity. Heh. Like that could ever happen. Just like Lord Butterhusk said, once you lose something, you can never get it back.

"You didn't have to do that, but you did, so you rock." The loli then gave Blake a wide smile, the ends of her lips reaching all the way up tugging at her checks and flashing her beautiful, white teeth.

In Blake's mindscape a concentrated beam of supercharged energy had just pierced her heart, causing her eyes to go wide and for her to spit out blood as she realized this was no ordinary opponent. Her very knees gave out on that attack as she fell to the ground. This would be the greatest enemy she had ever faced.

In that second, she felt feelings of wanton fangirl boiling up within her, positively exploding at the cuteness of the true loli before her. If she weren't careful, she would make some reference no one understood, or just grab this magnificent creation and run off with it never to be seen again.

No, stay strong, we have endured much more trying tasks than this. Just think of your training!

Then the Blonde bombshell spoke up. "Well, that's about as much as I'm going to be able to get without a proper shower. Hey, thanks again…?" She left the last part hanging, and Blake got the impression that she was waiting for Blake to reveal her name to her.

Well if she planned to make this walking angel hers, she would at least have to get acquainted with her first.

"Blake Belladonna". Or at least that is the name you mortals shall address me as. She held out her hand to the Angel, then withdrew it upon remembering what she had been doing for the last few minutes. She didn't seem to mind.

"Blake huh, that's nice. That's my baby sister, Ruby" she stated pointing to the Redhaired Loli who took it upon herself to strike a ridiculous pose at that moment. "And Most people just call me trouble, but you can call me Yang." She said with a provocative wink that sent all kinds of strange sensations down to Blake's nether regions. Indeed. Trouble you are.

"So, are you coming up for initiation?" 'Trouble' asked, with her entire body turned towards Blake in a way that made her feel slightly uncomfortable (as well as possibly slightly aroused), that kind of focus and attention from another being making Blake a little nervous.

"Uhh yeah." This was starting to get a little too close for comfort. Any more time and she might slip up and reveal who she really is. She had to get out of here, she had to escape back into her alternate reality of books, manga, and anime.

She picked up her book and began to try her best to focus on it, trying to be able to understand what the words her eyes were picking up meant, but given the close proximity of two sisters, she was having trouble immersing herself. These two, these unknown entities were melting her brain with anxieties. She had been courteous enough to offer her tissues, but that was a simple offer to a citizen in distress. There were only so many ways a conversation like that could go. Either she gave her the tissues, or she didn't. It was a calculatable situation where the entire scenario was easy to imagine, but this, being forced into non-scripted conversation, it was not something Blake was particularly skilled at. She hid her head in her book and began to ooze anti-social intent, trying her best to send off the girls or at least make them ignore her.

"Yes, I'm coming to the initiation." Ice cold words darted from Blake's mouth, chilling the bones of everyone who heard them.

"OHHHHH ARE YOU GONNA BE A HUNTRESS TOO! OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD THAT'S SO COOL OHMYGOD WHAT IF WERE ON THE SAME TEAM THEN IT WOULD ALMOST BE LIKE DESTINY US MEETING HERE WOULDN'T THAT BE SOOO COOOL OH MY GOSH WHAT'S YOUR WEAPON YOU HAAAAVVVVEE TO SHOW ME PLEEEAASSSEEE." Chilling the bones of everyone who heard them, except these rambunctious sisters…

It would hurt her, deep in her soul, but sometimes to fulfill his goal, a samurai would sacrifice his life and fall upon his sword. In the same way Blake Belladonna would kill her feelings to do what must be done.

"Well it was nice meeting you two." Blake said before rising from her seat, scanning the shuttle for any relatively unoccupied spaces. She continued searching for another spot to sit, seeking sanctuary away from the harsh exercise of social interaction. She spotted a quiet place, with only a charming young girl nearby. The first thing Blake noticed about her were the large and completely displayed Bunny ears atop her head.

"_You utter fool._" Thought Blake.

Blake was many things. Evil mastermind, holder of the secret Bladeless Whisper technique, defiler of the pure, but she was not a fool. This world was not ready for the Faunus just like it wasn't ready for the Otakus. The world was judgmental and cruel and this girl either had a death wish or was simply too naïve to know what she was doing. Surely, she knows what is going to happen if she walks into beacon like that. Blake started slowly making her way towards this bunny girl and her unoccupied spot.

As she left, she heard a pathetic wining sound come groveling from behind her. She turned to spy the offender, and it was none other than this Ruby character the Angel spoke of.

She had this miserable look on her face, like her favorite character was just killed off with no reason and they didn't even do it on screen they just mentioned it in the next episode and HOW COULD YOU DO THAT KRISMETTO? NEJIRO WAS A PERSON WHO WE ALL CARED FOR BUT YOU JUST WROTE HIM OFF LIKE HE WAS NOTHING JUST TO MAKE ROOM FOR THAT BITCH MIKASORA THE GODS WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THIS IF THEY MAKE IT TO YOU BEFORE I DO AND-

"_Namaste, Blake, Breath."_

Ruby was looking at Blake with this longing stare, her big silver eyes drilling straight into Blake's Soul. Or she would, If Blake didn't sell it long ago to Destroy the Holy Briffian Empire, no matter how many people she lost along the way or whatever kind of sins she would commit. She began stuttering, clearly trying to force something out her throat.

"_This won't be the only time you'll be struggling on something in your throat-"_

"Ughhhg Stop it Blake that's gross, plus she looks like she's 14 max_?" _Blake mentally berated herself.

"_Hey, I mean the best women are like wine right, nine years old and-"_

"_Alright, I'm done with you now. Goodbye." _Blake said shoving her perverted dark mind down to the deepest depths of her conscious, choking it out so that she might be able to have a normal conversation without her mind flashing to whatever horror that would strike bone chilling fear into even the most grizzled, battle hardened huntsmen and land Blake in the highest security prison within all of Remnant.

"_But wait, you're nothing without me, remember all those times we could have died, should have died, well we didn't BECAUSE OF ME. Your nothing without me, I'll be back you, just you wait, JUST YOU WAAAIITTTT." _The voice of dark Blake got more and more distant as she fell down the endless rabbit hole of Blake's mind.

"Heyyy, did you maybe, oh I donno…" Oh yeah. She stopped short in the middle of her sentence.

Blake looked at the girl, curious if she would finish this sentence sometime this Millenia.

"Wanna Keep sitting with us. Itsjustthatyouseemreallycoolandiwannalikekeeptalkingtoyoucauseimyoungerthaneveryoneelsehereandimnotgonnahaveanyfriendsbutyouseemnicesowouldyouliketokeeptalkingandmaybebemyfriendplease?"

Blake wasn't sure what to think. First of all, she had absolutely no idea, not even the slightest iota of an idea, what this girl had just said, what this word salad that she had just been served was.

Could this girl be a secret bardic warrior, capable of changing reality with only her voice?

From deep within Blake, from the deepest chasm of her depraved, corrupted mind that had spent far to many a night surfing the dustnet looking at tentacle monsters ravaging young innocent women. From this spot, where she had exiled Dark Blake for a few seconds ago came a shout so great it could be heard even from this forgotten place.

"_I wonder what else she can do with that tongue?"_

Blake nearly choked.

She then looked at the forlorn girl waiting for an answer. "I'm sorry, I was just reading a book and would really like to read it in peace, so I was just going to sit over there in the quieter part of the Bus. See you later?" She then turned around before Ruby could respond. She didn't want this to become a long drawn out conversation.

As she walked away, she began mentally cheering herself on. "WOOOOOOOOO OH YEAH! WE HAD A NORMAL INTERACTION WITH SOMEONE! WE DIDN'T JUST TELL THEM TO SCREW OFF OR SCARE THEM WITH OUR PERVERSE DERANGED MIND! OHH YEAH!"

She sat herself down near the bunny girl. There was a seat between them and a seat between her nearest neighbor in the opposite direction. All around a decent spot. The one she had been in before had better lighting, namely, a lack of it. This spot was soaked in brimming, suffocating sunlight. Seriously, people like this stuff? Still, it was better than smelling some guy's breath who obviously smoked and never brushed their teeth, or next to an old lady who just HAAADDD to show off pictures of her dog.

As she opened her por- Ahem, literature, she chanced a glance at Bunny Girl Senpai to her left. She seemed to be absorbed into whatever was on her scroll at the moment. She beheld the large ears before her, concluding that they were in fact, legitimate Faunus ears and not the adornments of a deviant with an animal Fetish.

Blake had seen things. Terrible things.

The girl looked in a word, docile. Given her age, Blake assumed that she was on her way to Beacon, same as her and the other two girls over there, but for the life of her, she couldn't see this doe becoming a huntress. She just looked so… friendly and gentle. She could never imagine this girl hurting another soul, much less fighting monsters for a living, and with her just parading around her ears, for all the judgmental eyes of the humans to see? What was this girl thinking?

But that was none of Blake's business. And so, she returned to _literature_.

_Hado was breathing heavily, his face mere inches away from Hikari's. He whispered in her ear,_

"_What would your betrothed think of this, Princess?" his voice drew out to the princess, letting it hang in the air and caress her ears._

"_Huh, my Bride to be, he means nothing to me. After you retake Japan with the power of the Black Legend sword, men like him will pray to live under your boot." The woman moaned as she drew her leg up his toned, strong body, the body of a man, the body of a conqueror._

"_Hah, live under my boot? The only thing that man will be under is six feet of dirt." The warlord growled into his newest concubines' neck, shoving her down and tearing off her kimono before-"_

"AND TODAY WITH NEWS ANCHOR LISA LAVENDER.!"

Blake inwardly grimaced with rage as her peace and tranquility was shattered into a million pieces. Here she was, completely immersed within her book, tearing through the words, her finger edging the page anxious for the time when she would get to turn it and dive head first into the beautiful, intricate, larger than life imagination of the beloved works of Hikorosh Mokomoto, the famed and revered writer of _Ninjas of Love, _this generations greatest novel(at least according to people with class), when the sound of the nearby tv seemed to be amplified tenfold. Blake looked up, curious as to what situation merited disturbing the peace of the dark princess, as well as identifying the mortal who would most assuredly face the consequences for such a foolish action.

The Tv was surrounded by several people, if you could call them that. Where they should have been were instead holes of everlasting darkness, not so different to the chasm where Blake's heart should be.

It's so difficult to explain, they were simultaneously there but not there, it's almost like the gods decided that basic extras weren't worth the time to animate so they instead placed in cutouts in their place. How strange. Blake would have to investigate further.

The cutouts were all staring intently at the television, and Blake could only reason that they had somehow found a way to turn up the television. _So, they still occupy space within the physical plane. Interesting…"_

"Thanks Cyril." Came the voice out of the television. She put on a blank face, completely void of emotion. Her eyes were dull and tired, like she was simply going through some motion, doing some dance she had tired of long ago.

"Maybe it was just good acting", reasoned Blake.

"This Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights Protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony."

Blake's heart skipped a beat at the shear mention of those words. Her legs tightened; her breath caught in her throat. Her entire body came alive, ready for action.

"_D-Do they know? Have they found me? Are they showing me more of my crimes before they finally take me in?"_

Blake began analyzing all the events that had occurred thus far on the shuttle. She sat down in an unpopulated section of the shuttle, then some boy puked, and ran off to the nearest bathroom. Then some girls came up and sat by her while they tried to get the puke of said boy off their leg and then tried to conversate with her. She excused herself after a while. Then she sat down by a Faunus girl and read some of her book, then the tv came to life and that led her to the point she was at now.

Is there any missed detail, any clue that she missed, any indication that she was in the midst of the enemy? It pained her to think of it, but those two girls might have been working for the police, or some government agency more likely, or even perhaps the white fang themselves. They had asked her to stay with them and talk some more so they could keep playing schoolgirl with her and dull her senses. It was Blake's fault for letting it work. Now, she was in checkmate. They were here to make her feel welcome, let her guard down, before troopers rushed the place and took Blake away, far off to some cell to live out her days, unless they decided to just kill her and be done with it.

It's not like they wouldn't be justified.

Blake's hands were shaking, and her heart was pumping gasoline to every muscle in her body, readying her for the coming fight. She scanned the shuttle, looking, praying for a way out. There were doors, that wasn't the problem…

The problem was that they were currently some 5000 feet in the air.

She was almost certainly going to die if she made that jump. Besides, the doors were almost certainly locked to prevent idiots from accidently opening them during trips than falling to their doom.

"Dammit, think Blake think!" the world was all of the sudden becoming very tight and loud, like a thousand voices simultaneously screaming at you all at once while the walls around you closed in. Blake had long since become accustomed to this feeling of Panic and had to ignore it. One wrong move, and she was dead. The screaming noises of the world and the searing lights of the world all had to be ignored, and the pain they caused were just weakness threatening to end Blake's existence. She was pathetic. Just a few months earlier she would have easily seen a solution and would already be within the depths of the city's slums, blending in seamlessly.

But that day had changed everything. Now, she was weak, and now she was going to die. Die a lonely and wasted life that was only spent killing others, all in the name of saving others. Ironic, huh.

…

The sound of chaos, the screams of the world, was only overpowered by the restless thumping of Blake's heart within her chest. It sent red hot energy to every muscle fiber, every cell within her body, begging her, demanding her to move. But she knew it was already too late. They got her.

…

"Screw this. I'm not dying yet. Not before I've rectified that evil." Blake promised herself, her bloodshot eyes whipping around, quickly mapping her trajectory.

"_If I got a running start then shot the window with Gambol Shroud, then fell between the building, I could use the weapon's ribbons to control my descent. Then once I found ground, she would have to quickly run to_\- "

"Hey, are you alright? You don't look so good?" A voice sweet as honey sang beneath Blake, who was sitting up currently, her upper body looking out towards the city with an admittedly crazed look on her face, and her feet almost planted into the ground. Her whole body drenched in sweat, and her face was redder than Ruby's cloak.

Blake's eyes quickly glossed over the figure, noting to herself that she looked genuinely concerned.

"_Funny. If only you knew what hell I had damned people like you and I to."_

Blake then looked up at the window, banishing the thought of the girl from her mind, instead focusing on what she needed to do in that moment. Blake completely ignored the girl and began to slowly move back, readying herself for the jump.

She barely made it a single step before a hand reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.

Blake instinctively tried to twist it, being so charged with panic and adrenaline that her body acted before her mind knew what to do. Blake assumed the worst and assumed that she had wasted too much time and that she was being handcuffed. The wrist instead rolled with her move, cleanly misdirecting it. Blake then jammed her foot into the ground and twisted her body into a rolling kick aimed at whatever assailant was behind her.

_After taking this enemy down out I'll immediately move for the window." _Blake formulated a plan in her head. However instead of her leg colliding with some poor souls face it was instead met with a cushioned hand that grasped her leg. Blake swung with a right hook, aiming at the expected location of her combatant's face before that too, was countered.

Then Blake saw the face of the rabbit Fanuns, with a frightened and confused look on her face.

Blake tried to move, but this girl had her incapacitated with her holding her left leg in one hand and her right arm in another, with Blake's body in an odd angle facing out in a horizontal position.

Blake growled, a primal rage escaping her, begging her, demanding her to find the strength she needed to stay alive. "UGGGGGHHHHH LET ME GO." She screamed, praying that this girl would grant her request.

Blake's eyes rolled over the shuttle, registering the eyes of all the passengers. There was only one word to describe the look in those people's eyes.

Horror.

It only made sense. Sure, many of these people had seen terrible things before, being perspective Huntsmen and Huntresses, but that was in a classroom, or at most in a Grimm infested forest. They had never seen horror in a person before.

In combat school you hear about all these terrible things happening. You fight Grimm, but it's all controlled, with your teacher nearby in case you bite off more than you can chew. You hear about wars; you hear about people going crazy and throwing themselves out of a moving bus some few thousand feet in the air. But its all so distant, so far removed. Like ghost stories meant to scare kids into going to bed at night. Things like that DON'T ACTUALLY HAPPEN, right?

Well now these kids were starring the Beast in the face, and it was ugly.

Blake struggled against the bonds of her holder, fighting, desperately clawing to get free before certain death came and took her away. This was her last chance, and she was letting it go. This girl was just too strong, her grip to sure.

"_So, this is how it ends, huh. Well, I'm sorry Mom and Dad. Your Dark Princess couldn't take over the world after all."_

Blake then detected a nervous laugh from above, coming from her captor's mouth.

"He he he he, funny right guys. Don't worry about it. My friend and I were just uhh…"

And then her sentence hung in the air waiting for someone to just put it out of its misery.

"G-getting in some pre-Beacon Practice, y-you know, can never be too ready, am I right?"

A silence deader than the social media site known as myspace filled the cart.

Everyone continued to stare, completely blankly. Blake, recognizing the situation and seeing that if she was indeed going to be arrested, by only one person, strong as that person might be, was likely no match for a Shuttle full of aspiring Hunters and Huntresses. Blake continued to struggle for dear life, punching and kicking shouting loud enough for the students in Signal to hear below. "SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE I DON'T WANT TO DIE PLEASE-" then a hand was placed over Blake's mouth, silencing her pleas.

"Yeah so were just going to go to the Bathroom really quick. Okay guys? Don't worry about it she's fine-" The Rabbit began nonchalantly before she was interrupted.

Blake managed to worm her lips out of the rabbit's grasp. "NO DON'T LISTEN MHMMFFFMH."

The Rabbit aggressively muffled Blake again. She laughed nervously, looking at the intensely skeptical eyes of the fellow members of the cart. Whether that was skepticism for whether or not Blake was truly being attacked or if she was just crazy, the rabbit didn't know, but given how some of them were looking straight at her and their looks of bewilderment and horror were starting to turn to righteous rage she thought now would probably be a good time to make an exit.

"Ha ha ha, silly girl, always pulling pranks." She choked out of dry lungs, already moving backwards towards the shuttle's bathroom. The rabbit was overly conscious of how the entire ensemble of the car began moving with mob mentality, inching forward with every step she took so the distance between them remained the same. A few of them had their hands at their hips and a focused look on their face.

"Soooooo yeaaahhh were just gonna be in the bathroom real quick five minutes I promise guys." The rabbit heard a weapon cock, and she doubled her efforts, moving as fast as this agonized hellacious woman in her arms would allow. She was nearly at the bathroom when the girl bit down on her hand. Hard.

Now, the rabbit was a second year at Beacon, coming back from vacation. She had been through grueling, torturous regimes, even harsher fights, and worst of all, gone to Port's office hours because she was struggling in his class and therefore had to sit through even more of those god-forsaken lectures.

The rabbit was no stranger to pain, but this girl, this feral monster, bit down like a rabid dog, fighting for its very survival. The rabbit made a huge mistake and drew back her hand in pain.

"PLEASE HELP SHE'S GONNA KILL ME YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING DON'T LET HER TAKE ME OH GOD NO-"

They were nearly at the Bathroom; Blake's chances of survival were growing smaller and smaller by the second. She noticed a small pole of metal within arm's reach, that supported the chairs. Blake grabbed hold for dear life. They stopped for a moment, and Blake searched frantically for some willing soul within the crowd, some kind heart to save her. She quickly found them.

"Hey, just what do you think you're doing?" rang a heavenly voice from the lips of an Angel.

"Hey, Yang, I don't know what's going on is she okay?" came a fragile, scarred voice from quivering lips.

"Everything's fine Ruby. Big sis is gonna take care of everything alright?" she reassured as she cocked her blazing gauntlets, with eyes ready for war.

"Ohh phissss, please, she's just overreacting guys." The rabbit waved a hand in front of her face, attempting to play off the situation before this went more out of hand then it already had. She then sent the same hand to try to pry Blake's arm off the pole.

"NO STOP LYING SHE'S GONNA KILL ME YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!" screeched the captive locking eyes with Yang, the woman she had meet just minutes ago and now might be her last hope of living a free life. Or living at all. Blake's arms burned against the enormous strength of her captor, pulling on the pole with all her might.

"Don't worry, we're gonna get you outta there, Blake." Came the soothing words of the archangel, her golden form blazing with a silent but promised fury.

"Hey, look at her ears. She must be one of those White Fang people trryna kidnap us real people" Called out a voice in the crowd, which was followed by murmurs of agreement.

The Rabbit knew that this situation was officially, irrevocably, completely,

Fucked.

And so, she decided to stop playing around.

"Oh, come on guys don't be dumb there's no way I could be one of those guys." She explained with a huff of exertion as she planted both legs on the ground and yanked Blake off the pole.

She then moved with phenomenal speed considering the weight she was carrying the rest of the way to the bathroom. "We'll be back in just a second guys, NOOOOOO need to worry." She said as the neared the door.

"Ohhh no, you're not getting away that easily." Yang, the Angel of valor proclaimed.

"Yeah, no way I'm letting you dognap my new friend, or bunny-nap her I guess, you know, since you've, like got cute bunny ears and all." Squeaked the voice of Ruby Rose, with her gruesome scythe unfolded and ready to reap a bountiful harvest.

"OHHHH GOD NOOO MOMMY MOMMY I DON'T WANNA DIE." Cried out the frantic Blake, her fingernails breaking and cracking against the cold floor as she was dragged away. Then, like a cascade, the small army of superhuman fighters descended upon Blake and the Rabbit.

The Rabbit was nearly at the door however, so when the shuttle Denizens finally made their move, the Rabbit needed only to move a few steps to reach her destination.

Blake saw the light of life flash before her, burning brighter than the sun,

She saw the dreams of death haunt her sight, filling them with red.

Then she saw the cold, hard, unforgiving metallic color of the shuttle's door as it closed in front of her.


	2. Chapter 2

Blake was thrown against the cold floor as soon as she heard the door slam shut right before her eyes. Just outside she could hear the screams and shouts of other students, rushing to get in. The Rabbit had began tinkering with her handbag as soon as she had thrown Blake a sizable distance away.

Blake realized all to soon that she was more than likely searching for some kind of weapon to end her life with. Again, she searched for any escape method, perhaps a window or something. The bathroom was reasonably large, with multiple stalls and several sinks and mirrors. It smelled awful, like some poor beast had died within this room years ago and it had spent all that time decaying more and more thoroughly. The walls were a dark blue instead of that malign, ugly white that is constantly plastered all over most bathrooms. There was a single window, small enough for someone to get through a few feet above her to the end of the Bathroom opposite from the door, probably a fire hazard or something like that. All Blake knew is that that was a possible escape route, but probably unnecessary.

This girl had already proven she was stronger than Blake, that much was clear, but that doesn't mean that the gap was so great that she would be able to kill her before the cavalry arrived from the other side of that door. Blake was still a hardened trained killer and even though this girl was probably more than a match for her, all Blake had to do was wait a few seconds at most before this bathroom was swarmed with angry hormonal EXTREMELY dangerous and highly armed teenagers, all of whom had one objective:

Hunt the hare.

The whole time Blake was thinking of this the Rabbit continued searching her handbag for something… Surely a warrior like this would know not to take their eyes off the enemy or risk certain death. Blake watched with keen focus, knowing that one wrong move would mean her death. She deftly began reaching for Gambol Shroud, with a plan to put down this would-be-assassin while she had the chance. Her fingers barely graced its cold medal before the Rabbit turned around and…

Used her handbag to create perfect barricade, completely closing off the bathroom door.

What the hell kind of a weapon is that? Just who had been sent to finally end her? The rabbit pushed some button deep within the bag, pressed it up against the door of the bathroom, and low and behold, the Handbag projected what looked like neon blue lights onto the door, forming a complete wall. The wall of light was totally flush against the walls of the doorframe, encapsulating it completely. The wall was comprised of several horizontal rows of blue light all surrounded by rectangular frame.

The barrier went up just in time. In the mere seconds that the two of them had been in the bathroom, the other passengers had made it to the door. The barrier had just sealed them off. Blake could see them thrashing against it, trying all they could to break it down, but couldn't hear them at all. The barrier seemed to simultaneously stop sound from passing through it as well as objects.

This was bad, very bad. Those people were her most likely route to survival, and Blake didn't have time to consider whether or not they could break through it. As things are now, she had a single hope, one solitary chance to live another day. She didn't want to risk a fight with the rabbit, given that she would more-than-likely lose, so that left the window leading out of the Shuttle as her only option.

Blake began to jump to her feet, intent of getting out of this alive. As she moved with her feline grace and speed towards the window, her eyes caught the sight of the two sisters, bashing against the door with all their firepower. In fact, if the lights were any indication, the would-be hunters and huntresses seemed more likely to bring down the whole Bullhead first, given the kind of siege-level attacks they were currently throwing at it. The barrier, however, remained strong. Blake just prayed that the vehicle would as well. Sure, the Passengers would probably be fine, given that they were all trained warriors and had more than likely learned how to fall properly and use their weapons to brace themselves, but that doesn't mean that the civilians below would be able to move out of the way of a falling Bullhead.

Blake pounced up, not taking any chances to even look at her enemy, and not wasting any more time. She bolted for the window.

"If they see me escape, they'll probably stop launching all these attacks." Blake reasoned. She assumed that most of the students on the shuttle were intelligent enough to see that the Bullhead's structure couldn't take much more. If she escaped, they would have no reason to risk the aircraft as a whole in order to get into the bullhead.

She leapt forward, reaching for Gambol shroud with the intent to use its pistol half to shoot the window. Her fingers had barely graced the weapon's cold steel before she again felt the strong hands of her captor.

A voice rang in her head, singing a vile chorus she had heard oh so many times before. Some days it had been her mantra, an anthem she would hum to herself just to stay sane, if you could assign such a label to Blake.

"Fight, Blake. Fight to stay Alive." Came the hard words of her old mentor, blasting in every corner of her mind, driving her body with one purpose.

Kill or be killed.

With deadly savagery, Blake deftly unfolded the Blade of Gambol shroud, and aimed it straight for the bunny's head. But again, the Hare proved today she was the hunter.

She dodged the attack perfectly, as if she had studied Blake for months, years even, and had prepared a reaction for each and every one of Blake's actions.

"It would seem they sent someone who knows what they're doing." Blake inwardly Grimaced.

Blake's body was brought back to the floor with a painful thud, but Blake refused to let it affect her. She turned the Blade, intent on making this miss into an even deadlier strike, for now she had nowhere to go, with the Blade mere inches from her exposed back. Blake plunged forward. All the while the cavalry on the other side of the barrier continued their onslaught, pounding away with enough dust to power a small nation.

The Rabbit moved faster than Blake anticipated, grabbing Blake's arm as she attempted to drive her sword into the Rabbit's back. This stopped her from being able to complete the action. Then, before Blake, a trained killer, could even recognize what was going on, she was disarming Blake, grabbing her wrist holding the sword and swinging Blake over her back by her wrist.

Blake hit the ground with all of her free appendages. The rabbit used her action's momentum and her own superior strength to wrest the weapon free from Blake's death grip. She then back pedaled several feet and held the sword icepick style in front of her, almost defensively.

"Please stop I don't want to hurt you." The Rabbit pleaded, her eyes overflowing with anxiety and fear. She maintained the distance between them, placing the sword between her and this feral beast but staying far away.

"What? No, it's a lie, it has to be, she's just trying to get me to let my guard down." Blake reasoned.

A counterargument formed in her brain as she analyzed all the content of her interactions with the Rabbit. "But she hasn't actually tried to kill us yet."

Blake went over ever action the Rabbit has taken thus far, and if she had truly wanted Blake dead, she seemed to be trying to do it in the most inefficient way possible. Sure, she had reason to drag her to the bathroom to hide the execution behind closed doors. But still, she would more than likely make at least some noise, and what would she do with the body? Hurl it out the window for it to land on the street where it would be discovered immediately. The police would easily be able to piece together the time of the bullheads departure records with that of the estimated time of disappearance of Blake, coinciding with the emergence of the Rabbit from the bathroom, assuming that somebody didn't happen to see a body falling from the bullhead and notify the police immediately. And that's all assuming she did this discreetly, without engaging the whole shuttle in an all-out war on her. The current scenario has far too many witnesses for a clean crime.

Not only that but this person was superior to Blake in combat, that much had already been proven multiple times. Blake knew the rabbit had her dead to rights on more than one occasion yet had not taken the plunge. In fact, she had only acted in self-defense so far. Well to be fair, dragging Blake in here against her will as she screamed for Mercy probably didn't count as self-defense, but given the circumstances it also doesn't necessarily count as murderous intent.

If this girl had really wanted her dead all she needed to do was let her jump, then follow after under the guise of coming to her rescue. Even if others tried to stop her, she could hide behind the mask of a huntress trying to protect others, and if anyone followed her, she could easily outpace them and find Blake long before they did.

Blake's impressively intuitive mind calculated all this in just a few moments. She was getting ready to hear out the Rabbits tale when a horrible, revolting sound reached forth from one of the stalls.

"BLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHFHHFHFH." Came the sounds of someone's stomach turning inside out.

"Oh". Blake thought. "So, the one who dared to defile my angel sought refuge here to further expunge his sickness."

A pained, wet cough came from the stall. "Uhhhh I think I'm dying." Wheezed the defiler.

"_Good. Feel the pain."_ Cheered Blake mentally, her sadistic side coming to fruition. "_I hope you experience a sickness greater than that of the people on the MIkosho island during the War of Stars arc in Super Dragon fighter."_

Blake and the Rabbit shared a look from across the room that seemed to ask the other, "So uhh, do you wanna to do something about that or should we just… "

Then came the sound of the sorry soul somehow finding even more contents in his stomach to evacuate.

"…yeah he's probably going to have to be drug out of here on a gurney." Blake thought to herself.

The fact that this boy was in a lady's restroom then dawned on Blake, but given the circumstances, she thought she could hurt him no more than he was hurting himself right now. He probably just rushed to the nearest spot he could pour his insides whenever he felt this Demon of a stomach bug rear its ugly head within him, and didn't really care for society's rules at the moment.

Really at the moment Blake didn't know if he would survive long enough to be accused of being a pervert who snuck into the lady's restroom.

She rose from her crouched, battle ready position and started to slowly inch towards the stall, still not entirely convinced of this Rabbit's innocence.

"It can never hurt to be too careful." Rang another rule for staying alive, instilled in her by her former mentor and partner. The man she owned everything to, and the man she hated with everything in her.

She neared the stall and the Rabbit began moving towards her. Blake assumed a battle pose and readied herself for another skirmish. In response the Rabbit held up her hands in defense.

"Please. I don't want to hurt you. I just want to talk that it, I promise." Came the unique accent of the Rabbit. She at least didn't _look _like she was lying, but skilled killers told lies even easier than they could tell the truth.

The Rabbit slowly Placed gambol shroud on the ground, keeping her hands up the whole time except when she had to use them to drop the weapon. She then slid the blade and pistol across the floor to Blake.

The weapon made a horrible screech as it crossed the tiled floor, crying out in agony as it scrapped against it.

Blake took it carefully once it was within arm's length, watching the rabbit the whole time. They both moved a little closer to the poor boy's stall. Blake was just outside, and the rabbit was a few feet away. Blake Knocked.

"BLUUUUURRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH" erupted from within the stall.

"Hey, are you alright? Do you need us to call for an ambulance? They could probably there when we landed if we called now." Blake asked the boy. Sure, she wanted him to suffer for the audacity of spreading his fowl all over the body of her Goddess, but after hearing his wails of inhuman agony, she was beginning to think he was serving as harsh enough punishment as is. Plus, it wouldn't do for him to go dying on her.

A queen needed all the subjects she could get, right?

"Yeaahh, (cough) just (wheezing and gagging) peachy." The Boy chocked out. The stall reeked of, well honestly putrid death. Blake reasoned that this boy was probably the source of the fowl smell she had first encountered when measuring the room.

Blake began to muse. If this man had been this sick since he had spread his breakfast all over her Angel earlier, he was in seriously bad shape. He had to be dangerously dehydrated by now, and he was still going. Could a throat take that much pressure? Probably not.

"Alright, once we land we are taking you straight to the infirmary." The Rabbit stated with a shaky voice, seemingly on the same page as Blake. Her hands grasping the hem of her dress tightly, like it was the only thing that she could possibly trust in this world.

"She's probably still reeling from recent events and on a panicked high" thought Blake.

"No, no, that's fine, it's just motion sickness, guys, I'll be fine once we get off, promise." He tried to pass off before groining in pain, with an underlying urgency in his words.

"_Why wouldn't he seek medical attention?" _Blake mused.

"Umm… I don't exactly know how to tell you this, but you sound bad. Like REALLY bad. You're risking a lot by refusing treatment." Advised the Rabbit.

Blake was a little surprised they was having this conversation, blown away by the stupidity of some people. What, was he just too "Manly and Strong?" to go to the hospital? Was he delusional after losing so many bodily fluids? Was there some unknown reason that would make him not want to go to the hospital? Whatever it was she couldn't imagine it was more important than staying alive.

"Oh, don't you worry. An Arc hasn't been killed by their stomach yet, and I'm not gonna be the first!" the man proclaimed before a wave of nausea overtook him sending him back into the toilet's bowl.

"_God,_ _the stench." _Blake took note of the fowl miasma overtaking the room.

"_Again, he refuses Medical aid. Just what was it about a visit to the hospital that was so off-putting?" _Blake wondered.

"Well, I guess we can't make you go, but you really should." The Rabbit tried to impart some sense to the poor boy.

"Yeah, you're probably right…" the boy's voice sank as begrudgingly accepted the Rabbit's advice like that of an older sister. That or he had just passed out and his brains last task before checking out was trying to finish that sentence.

Something, perhaps a stray wind or the pounding of the students weapons shook the shuttle, bumping all the passengers about, including our poor diseased Arc.

Whatever amount of control he had gained over his breakfast was lost immediately. As the two girls braced themselves against the stall doors, they heard the wails of agony burst forth from this Arc's lips.

"UGGGHHHUUUUUUU I HAAAATTTEEEEE FLYING!" the Arc complained.

Blake giggled slightly amused at the suffering of the dreaded defiler, betraying herself. The rabbit noticed. She then offered a complimentary smile back at the Raven-haired girl. Blake smiled back on human instinct, then immediately regretted it.

"_That was a mistake, Blake, you do not show signs of happiness, you are the Dark Princess, the Bearer of the Curse of Depravity. Such things such as laughter and joy are lost on you. Have you forgotten your purpose?" _

But on more careful consideration, Blake realized that it might be useful, breaking the ice after a traumatic incident. She might be able to use this, if she played her cards right.

Blake watched as the Rabbit's form visibly became more relaxed, calmer. Her daunt and rigid stance became more loose, her hands which were previously balled up into a white-knuckle fist eased into a steady hand that hung at her side, and her face which had been dominated by terror and anguish were replaced with caution and a slight glimmer of hope. She noticed these things and knew there was nothing to worry about.

The rabbit called out to the Arc, amusement in her voice. "Alright well just call us if you need anything. We should be arriving at Beacon any time now. Just tough it out a little longer."

"Uhyhah, yeah." Came the haggard, empty voice of the Arc, like he had given up on wishing away the pain and sickness and was now just focused on keeping his body under control and not loosing his stomach again.

The Rabbit looked content with this, and seemed in general more approachable, like the sudden onrush of vomit from the Arc had alleviated _just a little _of the tension between the two.

"Now, how to capitalize on this?" Blake began her machinations, calculating the most efficient means of earning this person's trust, who until recently, she had been trying to kill at every possible moment.

At this point, Blake believed this girl was more than likely not a member of the white fang. And even if she was, her conjured reasoning behind the attempted jump and the events thereafter wouldn't change. If she was the enemy, she knew Blake was in the white fang, so she knew why she tried to jump. There would be no use trying to trick the White Fang spy Rabbit, so she could just lie to the unlucky Student of Beacon Rabbit. Whether or not this student persona was fake didn't matter at the moment. Blake just had to come up with a lie to satisfy it.

In a perfect world, her excuse would have nothing to do with the white fang but given the horror that was burned into her face, she would imagine that it couldn't be something as simple as. "Oh, we're huntresses so we should be able to scale the walls of Beacon. This shuttle is an insult to our skill." Given the timing as well, with how perfectly it lined up with the news broadcast of the white fang, the terrorist organization would have to be part of her tale. She would have to also give reason as to why she fought back against The Rabbit, and especially why she fought so hard, literally kicking and screaming on the way out, and even trying to kill an innocent stranger.

"Well… umm…" Blake's mind went blank at the prospect of plotting such an impossible narrative.

She knew that she had to tell as least a partial truth. She simply didn't have the time to craft a story that would satisfy all these requirements as well as keeping Blake's true motives hidden, if such a story even existed. Given that, she analyzed the recent happenings, trying desperately to find some innocent motive, something that would protect her identity, something that would keep her previous life a secret.

Her mind went back to the News story, and she knew she had her answer.

Now the Rabbit was looking at her, a strained look on her face, "Hey, umm…" came her elegant accent, full of concern.

Blake met her gaze, aware of what was coming next but waiting for her to say the words.

"What was all that, with you trying to jump out the window, with you attacking me? The screaming? It's like you were completely possessed, like some monster had taken over your body and was making you do terrible things. I've never seen anything like it." The rabbit questioned, a visage of bewilderment and horrible amazement in her eyes.

Blake marveled for a moment in the accuracy of her statement. "_you are indeed right, little girl. There is a monster inside of me." _

Blake looked back at the horde of students outside the doorway. They had stopped beating it down with all the force of Armageddon but were still watching with intense focus, having long since destroyed the opaque door so that only did the Rabbit's projected wall stood between them. They were all piled up outside the door. They seemed to be content with simply watching for now, given that hostilities had ceased for a moment.

Blake then suddenly leaned in close to the Rabbit, intent of conveying a message for only her ears. The Rabbit immediately shot back, recoiling in the opposite direction when her would-be-murder suddenly stole distance between them.

"I'm sorry, I just don't want anyone else to hear this. I just want to go into one of the stalls so everyone else can't see." Blake admitted through a quiet hiss, trying to eliminate any chances that the arc heard this conversation, assuming that he wasn't already dead. He hadn't said anything in a while.

"What, that's absurd!" the rabbit practically yelled. "just tell me or show me or whatever you're going to do out here. I'm not going into a stall with you. Or have you forgotten all the swords and the shouting and then the swords again… The rabbit gushed. The whole time her hands were shaking and flying around her face as her speech became animated with the motions of her appendages, her fractured mind obviously reeling from such a great stress in such a short amount of time.

"I can't tell you out here, I'm sorry but you'll have to come in here." Blake knew how mind bogglingly stupid this sounded, going into such a tight space with someone who had just made an attempt on your life just because, 'no one else could see.' But Blake couldn't show anyone else. Honestly, she didn't want to show the Rabbit but no matter how hard she thought about it she couldn't come up with a viable lie that didn't involve revealing this sensitive information.

The hare didn't move a muscle.

Blake sighed. "Listen I'm sorry, it will all make sense, I promise. I just need you to follow me right now. I can't show everyone what I'm about to show you and it's the only way that I can make you understand my actions. If you don't care to know, fine. It makes my life easier. But if you do, then you'll accept that I don't want everyone to know what I'm about to tell you. I can't make you believe I'm not going to try anything again, no matter what I say, I know that. But I can remind you that you currently are three to zero against me, so the odds are in your favor should I attempt to harm you. You said you wanted to talk; you almost fought every single student out there just to stop me from jumping out of this bullhead, all to make sure I was alright. If you really want to help me, you'll come in here right now." She knew this was wrong, making demands of this girl after she had tried to harm her, but Blake had no choice.

Blake watched the rabbit with great intensity, like a gambler watches the first cards off a deck to know if their bet paid off. She implored, she prayed that she had measured this right, that her readings had been accurate. She inwardly sighed when this creature of light looked at her with kindness in her eyes, and she knew that she had won.

_Heart of the Cards, right? _

The hare slowly meandered over to the cage-(ahem) _bathroom stall_ Blake had chosen. Blake knew that this rabbit cared for people, she knew she was kindhearted. Why else would she go so far to save a stranger? Why would she only defend herself against lethal attacks, never once going on the offensive herself.

Because she cared. She had a heart. And that… that made her weak.

The rabbit entered into Blake's lair, behind the prying eyes of the other students, and away from the innocent ears of the defiler. Now, no one could see what was about to transpire…

But before that, Blake had to deal with a certain… Problem.

Once both girls had stuffed themselves into the stall, it had become painfully obvious that this was really only meant for one person, and therefore the two of them were a little to close for comfort.

Or in Blake's case, close enough for _too much comfort. _

"_My oh my, I've hadn't noticed how tall this hare is, nor how deliciously white her legs are, like a mocha coffee on a Monday morning, steaming and lifting sprits. Her brown eyes are like a great forest, everlasting and infinite, like the earth had been once again returned to nature, and not to mention her soft yet strong body, gently caressing me here in this tight space. Speaking of tight spaces, maybe we should-" _

"THAT'S IT, THAT'S REALLY IT." Blake shut down the corrupt part of her soul before it could take the thought any further.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" the hare asked, her kind eyes almost seemingly forgiving her and forgetting all the atrocities that had been done to her today. But Blake knew better, she could still see the shake in her form, the lack of color in her face, the uneasy hands that fiddled with anything they could get their hands on. This girl was still scarred half to death, but was putting on a show, for her, just to make it easier on Blake.

"_Oh ho ho, I didn't know they still made em this way. I will enjoy watching that sweet, naïve little light leaving your eyes." _Blake's depraved nature screamed from the pits of Blake's being.

"Jesus, Blake, are you gonna skin her alive and eat her too?" Blake reprimanded herself, appalled at the sudden outburst. Appalled, but sadly, not surprised.

Blake shoved the more depraved part of herself to the deepest recess, the deepest chasm within herself, intent on locking it away so she might actually be able to think and have a normal conversation, then looked at the Rabbit, really looked at her. This girl, who was a complete stranger, had just extended a hand to her when she was in need, going farther than most of her oldest accomplices would. She had seen the look of terror on her face before the jump and held out her hand to catch her before the plunge. She defended herself against Blake's attacks while she could have ended the fight easily. She didn't even have to kill Blake. She probably could have just knocked her out with her superior combat skills. But she didn't. Her objective wasn't just survival, but she wanted to help Blake. She wanted to talk to her about what would have made her jump. And while jumping out of a moving vehicle isn't that odd of an activity for a huntress, Blake imagined that the face she had made betrayed some deeper emotion, some more intense pain.

She almost was almost forced into combat with the other denizens of the bus, all warriors in their own right. She had dragged Blake to safety as she tried to turn the whole bus against her, all because it was the right thing to do. And even after all these crimes, all these atrocities, The Rabbit still wanted to help her. She was still here fighting her own panic for Blake's sake, because she thought Blake needed it more than her.

Meanwhile Blake had tried to kill the first person who she perceived as a threat. She had tried to feed this girl to the hounds if it meant ensuring her own survival. If this girl was the epitome of selflessness, then Blake was Selfishness personified. She had tried to save herself. She had protected herself, even at the expense of everyone else, while this girl thought of everyone except herself.

Blake owed this girl. She needed to fix this mess she had caused.

Even if it was with a bold-faced lie.

The first thing that Blake did was reach up to her bow tied atop her head, that inconspicuous accessory that was supposed to conceal her identity while she was at Beacon. She had to hope that this girl wouldn't go about telling people who she was, but at the time that was a risk she had to take. She untied the Ribbon, revealing the truth. Blake looked tentatively towards the Rabbit, unsure of how she might react.

The Rabbit's eyes had sprung to life, full of surprise and astonishment. "Ohhh, so you're a-"

Blake cut off her question, fearing the consequences should the word be birthed into existence. "Yes."

The Rabbit had this gleeful, joyous expression on her face upon seeing Blake reveal her ears, the sort of look Blake wished her depraved, damned soul would be able to produce, but alas, she was a creature of Darkness, forever damned to agony and isolation. Then the rabbit's disposition of cheerfulness turned to a look of confusion and skepticism.

"But…" she began. "That still doesn't explain all the, you know…", of course alluding Blake's deeds of heinous villainy aboard the bullhead.

"Yes, well. About that…" she began, dreading in every inch of her body what she was about to do, had to do. The current situation demanded an answer. And no matter how hard Blake thought, no kind of story, no kind of fabrication would justify her actions up to this point while keeping her past concealed. No complete Lie would make her provide enough reason to validate what she had done, while simultaneously protecting her identity.

The path to redemption was the path of honesty. However, …

Blake knew what she was. Redemption was beyond her reach.

"As a child, I was in a peaceful protest for Faunus with my family when the white fang attacked. They killed nearly everybody but kidnapped me and tried to force me to fight for them, placing a weapon in my hand and telling me that if I didn't fight or tried to run, they would kill me and everybody else I loved. At first, I wanted to get away, I wanted to run, but they were watching, always, keeping me locked up when not beating me into submission or 'educating' me on 'the truth of humanity'. Their evil smiles seemed to taunt me, just _asking _me to try, but I knew that if I did, they would put me down as fast as they would to any other, 'Traitor to the cause'. So, I stayed, and they beat me day in and day out, force feeding me their ideology until I started to believe it myself. That we were purifying the world from those disgusting humans. They turned me into a weapon, a cold tool to be used for the cause. I…" Blake's voice began to crack. "I did terrible thigs for them, I killed for them, all in the name of acceptance. But one day, I looked at myself, and I didn't even recognize the person looking back at me. I had become a ghost, I wasn't the idealist who went to peaceful protests, I was the monster who attacked them. I wasn't the kind girl who would give anybody a chance, Human or Faunus, I was a monster that hated humans as much as they hated us. I had become what I sought to destroy for so long. And so, I left, leaving once they trusted me enough to think they didn't have to keep a constant watch over me, and I set out to right the wrongs I had done, start over by becoming a huntress." Blake took a deep breath, surprised at the completeness of the backstory, given she had made it on the spot.

"_Well if you hadn't lost it because of a simple news broadcast then we wouldn't be in this spot." _Blake cursed herself in her mind while the venom dragged and burned its way through her cranium. She had long come to peace with lying to get out of trouble, but this, _this was wrong, _lying to the girl who had done nothing except try to help Blake.

"_We are what we are. There is no use in denying it." _A solemn voice crowed in her soul, echoing throughout the vast emptiness that was Blake Belladonna.

"It's not like this a complete lie." Blake justified to herself. Depending on your point of view, she was a prisoner of the white fang. While the part about her being kidnapped from a protest and the thereafter imprisonment was a generous stretch of the truth, it wasn't necessarily false either.

"_Blake, the only thing more stretched than the idea that you were a prisoner of the white fang is the filler in second season of Codex to the monsters." _A voice crowed within Blake, which she promptly ignored.

"And then," Blake continued. "When I saw then news on the television, I- I thought they had found me, I thought they were trying to taunt me, like that one little news flash had been placed there to foreshadow them-" and Blake almost couldn't say the words. "_taking me back._" she barely whispered out through a strained, cracked voice while tears threatened to strain out of her eyes. All Blake wanted to do was get away. These things weren't meant to be said. They were meant to be locked up and shut away for all time. Here she was, Blake Belladonna, the so-called Princess of Darkness, nearly crying in front of a total stranger because she couldn't keep it under control.

And for all her darkness, all her depravity, Blake, like all of us,

Just didn't want the world to know how broken she was.

A small part of Blake noted that this last thing she had said to the Rabbit was probably the truest thing she had said yet, the words that showed how weak she was, how much of a _scarred little girl _she really was. Blake almost had to laugh at the irony. She could lie and cheat and kill without a second thought. She was supposed to be a ruthless, efficient hunter, who had thrown away their human emotions for superhuman results in war.

Yet here she was, completely unable to talk about her own true feelings just like anyone else.

Blake had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming at the top of her lungs, disgusted at her own weakness, her own helplessness to her heart, which she thought she had killed long ago.

Blake couldn't look at the Faunus, too scared to see the pity in her eyes for poor Blake. She could just see it now. She had probably just botched her whole future at Beacon because of her little fit over a news flash. They would get to Beacon, and they would tell her that they "can't have someone who would so willingly take lives nearby the other students." They would say it was a "measurement for their safety." They would tell her that she "would need to get the Trauma that would cause her to nearly kill a random innocent girl sorted out before she could do anything in the real world.' What would her parents say if they could see her now? Hell, they would probably think that she was-

Then all of Blake's primary nervous functions ceased. She mind was dully aware of the presence of tight, suffocating arms embracing her. Her vision was obscured by the rabbit's shoulders.

Was she…Hugging her?

Blake's breath caught in her throat, and she didn't move a single muscle, nor did a single, solitary thought cross her mind. The only sensation she was aware of was the Faunus's body tightly wrapped around her own as well as the frantic rushing of her heart.

"You poor, poor creature. What happened to you?" the Rabbit's words were like a warm bath flaring and enraging a sore muscle.

Blake tried to speak, but her mind lacked the powers to form a cohesive thought, so the only thing that came out were disjointed stutters.

"It's okay. You're far away now, I promise they'll never hurt you again." The words were like the water a sailor drinks after being dehydrated for weeks from the ocean.

Blake's hands balled into fists straining down as her core tightened and her whole body screamed at her to run. "Y-you don't know that." She barely chocked out.

The Faunus held Blake out infront of her, her arms still wrapped tightly around her, but so that the two could see each other's faces. She brought up a hand to Blake's face, who had to fight her basic instinct not to push it away. The Rabbit's hand brushed away a strand of Blake's disheveled hair. It felt like a piece of broken glass dragging endlessly against Blake's porcelain skin, but she ignored the feeling.

Blake audibly reclaimed mucus, which had begun to flow from her nose like the water flows from a dam, to which the Rabbit laughed wholeheartedly. After which she looked at Blake with the focus of a microscopic laser, piercing Blake's swollen, pained heart.

"Hey, look at me, look at me." The rabbit instructed Blake upon witnessing her trying to evade her gaze. "You got out. They can't hurt you anymore. I want you to tell me you understand. They can't get to you here. You're safe."

Blake's heart threatened to burst from her chest. Her whole form, her whole being was breaking. _Safe. _This little girl, this naïve little rabbit untrained in war had no idea what the word meant. Sure, she was a fighter, an even better fighter than Blake at that. But she hadn't seen war, she hadn't become war. How could someone who had never known a lack of peace be able to define the state of it?

A sinister, cold voice cried out within her. "Do you even know what the word _safe _means?" She'd spent so much time making yourself stronger, so she could be _safe _at all times, trusting in the strength of her training and her weapon. But now, well she was beginning to learn that her definition of safety might be flawed in and of itself.

Blake looked at the Faunus, in all of her sweaty, disheveled beauty. The light from the window shone down perfectly on the Faunus, illuminating her in heavenly light. Blake began to try to think of the words to say, to process the meaning of everything the Rabbit had said.

Blake lightly pulled away from the Faunus, finding the feeling of her arms suffocating after so long and no longer needing their support. "Thank you." She snuffled out. She then picked up her Bow which had fallen to the ground somewhere within Blake's expulsion of emotion.

"_Don't worry, the best characters always have a sob fest episode." _Cheered her depraved mind, thinking back to some of the best heroes and villains from her collection of books and manga. They always had low points, times when they didn't know how they would go on.

"_but with the almighty power of friendship everyone can fight even the most impossible of battles!" _The line from one of her favorite characters. Sure, it was a little cheesy, but maybe Blake needed to hear it right now.

"Of course." Came the Rabbit, her bright motherly eyes shining like a warm oven cooking some warm meal on the most frigid of nights. The rabbit herself just seemed to exude warmth and kindness, and while Blake knew it was just a feeling, it almost seemed as if this girl was lending her entire being to Blake, her soul taking Blake's burdens and placing them upon her own.

Blake was about to ask The Rabbit if she wouldn't mind keeping the things that were said today a secret, just between the two of them, when she heard a sound like a vacuum applying it's power to the whole room, and then a crashing sound. Upon leaving to investigate, Blake saw a Blonde woman with a tight fitting dress that went to about mid-thigh, she had on a nice dressy white shirt, a black vest like adornment, a black cape with curves and edges, as well as black panty hoes that traveled a the whole length of her leg, as well as long, black boots that hung to her legs perfectly. She held a wand that looked suspiciously like a toy Blake would deny having any knowledge of. The wand was glowing with some ambient purple energy, and the runes behind the witch clued Blake into the wands arcane purpose. If Blake were in better circumstances, she might be ogling this older woman with reckless abandon.

But as it is, the only expression, the only identifiable sensation upon this's Witches face could be described as this:

_Pissed off._

The witch beheld her with a burning rage within her yellow eyes. "Both of you, we need to talk."


	3. Chapter 3

**Greetings all, this is TheOreoLord**

**So, incase you didn't get the notice last week, I restarted this from chapter 2. If you're concerned about whether or not anything specific to those chapters I took off actually happened, I would say that that is up to you. Unless I write something that directly contradicts something from the old chapter 3-9, you decide what from those first few happened. **

**If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it, I just decided to restart the fic because I really didn't like the direction it was going in. **

**So, anyway let's get this started. **

And so, that is the story of how Blake went Ballistic on the bullhead, she thought in passing as she laid on her bed waiting for Weiss to shut the hell up. People can dream, alright.

The march towards Ozpin's office had been harrowing, Glynda showing her clear displeasure with a freezing cold shoulder the whole way there. Velvet and Blake walked in an awkward silence, the unnerving presence of Glynda Goodwitch killing all possible joy as her heeled feet clacked against Beacon's floors.

And if the march had been difficult, the interrogation with the man was downright grueling. Not because Ozpin was angry. No, in fact Blake suspected that the interrogation was so hard simply because the man was so nurturing. She had been expecting rage, red faced anger, or at the very least shrewd judgment from the ever still and professional face of an academy professor.

But he did none of those things. Instead, he simply asked her if she was okay, and what he could do to help. And Blake had no idea how to respond to that.

But she got through it. After talking with her, Ozpin had been so generous as to craft some tale that he spun to the rest of the student body, telling them that it was all simply a, "_Social experiment, or test, if you will, meant to measure their drive as young huntsmen and huntresses, to measure their ability to react in times of crisis." _According to the story, both Blake and Velvet were supposed to enact an assault scene, prompting the young students on the bullhead to act when faced with a hostile situation in the real world. He was quick to explain that while he used the word, "Test", there was no grading to be done. You didn't pass or fail the experiment; you simply knew how you would react if a stranger was attacked before your very eyes. Both she and Velvet were willing participants in this experiment, eager to help the headmaster teach their fellow student body, or so the story went.

Velvet, the Rabbit who Blake had in truth tried to brutally murder, had been so kind as to corroborate this story. Blake tried to kill the girl, yet Velvet had shown her nothing but depthless kindness since the incident. Blake couldn't figure that out for the life of her. It vexed our young Princess of Darkness to no avail.

Then, after that, the staff of Beacon decided it would be best if she slept away from the crowds, at least for tonight, and gave her an empty room to rest in for their first night, which was more than agreeable for Blake. Privacy?! A place far away from prying eyes, where she might view the greatest literary achievement mankind has ever produced, anime and manga, shamelessly?!

Where she might proudly ogle all her collectibles without fear of anyone walking in the room?

Where she might polish her tools?! Both figuratively and literally!

Blake instantly agreed.

And _oh, _what a night it had been. So many episodes binged in one night, so many emotional rollercoasters as her favorite characters were put into the most bleak, hopeless of circumstances, only to rise to the occasion and come back with a new power up and instantly trounce the villain!

Yes, quite a night it had been. But sadly, it could not last, and too soon the morning came.

She then was, quite literally, thrown headfirst into initiation. Ozpin had evidently thought it would be a good idea to launch his students a hundred feet in the air, and it was their job to land safely in the arena for their initiation. Sure, hunters should be able to land effectively from great heights, but you don't teach someone to swim by throwing them in the water and just telling them, "Don't drown."

Maybe that was why most students were so accepting of Ozpin's tale of what happened on the bullhead. He evidently 'thought outside the box' when it came to teaching.

Thankfully, no one was hurt too horribly, and the initiation went on without a hitch, other than when Blake shouted, "INITIATION SPECIAL MOVE: HIDDEN DECAPITATION STRIKE!" when she jumped out of stealth to take down an Ursa threatening Yang, the Blonde babe sent down from the stars.

Blake had quickly shown that beast who Yang's real predator was.

After initiation, she was put on a team with her partner, and _oh how Blake wished was in more ways than one, _Yang, her little loil sister, Ruby, and Blake's arch nemesis, Weiss Schnee.

Blake's blood ran cold the first time she saw her here at this school. After so many failed assassination attempts, Blake panicked when she saw her, certain the heir to the Schnee line had come to put Blake down for her crimes, to execute her like the criminal she was.

But in truth, Weiss was, like nearly everyone here, completely oblivious to Blake's depravity and her dark past. And she would keep it that way.

The Professor probably had an idea of how damaged the young girl was, as did Velvet, and to some extent all the passengers on the bus. They had to know that there was _something _off about Blake Belladonna. Blake had managed to protect herself in the interrogation with Ozpin, dodging what questions she could, and giving half truths that only showed him the tip of the iceberg that was Blake's dark, tragic backstory.

"_The idiotic professor couldn't have gotten us to spill even a single secret if he tried! And do you know why, my sweet pretty? It's because the man is weak! He was so concerned with your mental health, how utterly foolish. You don't give your prisoner an impromptu therapy session! You don't let your guard down in front of the enemy! You crush their soul with terrible, gut wrenching torture fit to make even the most legendary of huntsmen grovel and scream for mercy! You pull the truth from their quivering lips as your hand travels down further and further along their stomach until you show them how even unbearable pleasure can be used to torture just as much as pain by slithering your red hot branding rod straight up their as-"_

"Alright, that's quite enough of you." Blake mused, slamming the door on such foul wonderings, and returning to the real world from the realm of daydreams. But once she realized what the real world was like at that moment, she desperately tried to return to her fantasies.

"You. Ruby. Get up." She heard the icy, controlling voice of Weiss Schnee, the enemy of Faunus kind everywhere bark out towards the completely unconscious girl in front of her. The beginnings of blue, morning light were dripping in through the window, and everything was peaceful and quiet, except for the nagging voce of Weiss, shattering the serenity.

Blake looked over at her scroll. It was 6:28. There was no earthly reason for Ruby, or anybody here, to be up this early. It was the second day of class, so it wasn't as if the girl had any homework to catch up on, yet at least, and they would still have plenty of time if she had slept until 7:30 or even 8. Classes started at 9 so as long as Ruby didn't lollygag, she would be fine. She should just let the poor girl sleep.

Milk won't make you grow without proper rest, Weiss.

Or at least, that's how Blake saw it. Weiss, on the other hand, had other ideas.

"Ruby. I refuse to be late to class because _you're _too lazy to get out of bed." The heiress's words were like a winter's howling wind, chilling the unfortunate souls who heard it to their very core, and a dull headache started to sprout within the back of Blake's head, right at the base of her skull.

Ruby answered Weiss's complaining by grunting as she rolled deeper into her covers.

"_YESS MY CHILD!" _The darkness within Blake cheered. _"RESIST THE OPPRESSION!" _

For once Blake didn't feel the need to stop the voices.

Weiss looked even more offended, if such a feat was possible. Her teeth were grinding, and her eyes singed with mounting frustration. "Come on now, it is time to rise.", she said with her hands on her waist and turning her face towards the ceiling as if these simpletons around her were not worth laying her royal eyes upon.

Blake was starting to consider going down there to try out once of her favorite moves from the fang on Weiss, maybe see if she could finish the job from so long ago. The damn girl was ruining the whole team's beauty sleep!

What! Does she think it's easy to just read manga all night on your scroll? Does she think it's easy to continuously sacrifice hours of sleep just so you can see what happens next? Does she know what its like to stay up far too late then be woken up by a bitchy heiress screaming at her younger partner because she's not operating up to said heiress's standards?

No! Weiss understood none of those things! But Blake would make her.

She'd show her. Show her just how _irritating _she was being. It would be so easy. One quick snap, one thumb in the right spot on the throat…

Just before Blake slithered out of bed to put an end to the wailing white woman, Yang butted in, saving her the effort.

"Weiss. Shut. The. Hell. Up." The blonde brawler called out before shoving her blanket over herself, creating a Yang-cocoon, a nice chamber full of sexy blonde.

"_And oh, how I would like to share that chamber with you. Perhaps we could share other chambers as well…" _Blake's darkness intoned at seeing Yang, and the briefest flash of underboob as she tore her blankets off for the briefest moments to fight back against Weiss.

"Oh, don't yell at me you big brute. Everyone would be much better rested if it wasn't for your snoring, you know. Now you get up too."

Weiss got no response from Yang, other than the blonde placing her pillow over her head dramatically.

"What about you, Blake?" she inquired. "Are you up."

Now, whether to play dead or not. No, that wouldn't work. If Blake pretended to sleep Weiss would simply holler her like she was doing to everyone. Soon she would be parading around the room, yelling at the top of her lungs, turning the lights on, doing anything in her power to get the team up when _Weiss thought_ they should be up.

"Yes." Blake deadpanned, and leapt from the bed, falling to the warm, carpeted floors of the dorm room.

Weiss looked at her curiously, then turned her head back to the less alive members of team Ruby.

"You see. Blake's awake. If she can do it so can you!" Weiss whined, pointing to Blake. The room filled with sounds of disapproval from the other girls.

Not that she was listening. Blake had decided she wasn't listening to this any longer, even if it meant she had to leave the warm confines of her bed. She went to her dresser, got an outfit, and went to the bathroom to change, all the while Weiss continued to try to rouse Ruby and Yang.

After her clothes were on, Blake left the bathroom and went to leave the room.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Weiss asked as Blake opened the door.

"Leaving." Blake said as she shut it in the heiress's face.

Blake began to walk around aimlessly, trying to find someway to pass the time, outside of the toxic, anxiety igniting realm that was the team RWBY dorm room. She walked slowly, her breath coming in rhythmically as she moved down Beacon's ornate halls.

It's funny, if you think about it. Had anyone else had the audacity to turn their back to Weiss in a conversation, they would have instantly been incinerated in her glorious wrath. But ever since Weiss had heard that the Headmaster had picked Blake, over all other students, to personally help him, Weiss had, for lack of a better term, been kissing Blake's ass at every chance. And not in the good way either!

Truth be told, it wasn't that bad, Weiss gave her ample space and didn't try to talk to her at every opportunity, but it was obvious that Blake got special treatment. She could speak, as in open her mouth to say something, without Weiss reprimanding her for it and pointing out everything wrong with her statements. Which is more than nearly everyone else got, Blake thought as her legs carried her further and further into the unknown spaces within the academy, or at least unknown to Blake.

She was also fond of the Nikos girl. The Champion of tournaments all over, the so-called invincible girl. They constantly had these oh, so painful to watch conversations. Or rather, Weiss forced them on Pyrrha. It was that raw, pure fakeness in their voice when they talked that made Blake cringe. The way they both smiled a little to brightly, in a way that came off more as creepy than friendly

Blake played no such games, and usually just starred at Weiss like a deer caught in the headlights when the heiress tried to talk to her.

It wasn't her fault! Blake had spent **years** trying to kill Weiss, or at least her family. It kind of makes it awkward when she's asking you what she should chose for breakfast and the only thing you can think about is how just last year you were trying to poison her breakfast!

Blake was torn on the heiress. On one hand, she wanted to slay the tyrant before she rose to power and save a whole generation from endless oppression. And on the other…

Blake had an even more sinister idea for revenge.

You see ever since the Emerald Forest, or perhaps even before, Blake had noticed certain things about Weiss. Small things. Maybe it was the constant demands and insults that, while they were spread to nearly everyone, seemed to focus on one girl in particular. Maybe it was the way Weiss couldn't ever leave that girl alone, claiming it was, 'for her own good.' And that the girl, 'couldn't be trusted without adult supervision.' The way the heiress seemed extra focused on leveling so much aggression on a certain Redhead.

But Blake saw it for what it really was. She saw the true feelings behind those masked barbs. She saw the way Weiss blushed and turned her nose from Ruby.

Weiss Schnee was a tsundere, and hopelessly infatuated with Ruby Rose.

And Blake was gonna make it happen.

Blake was sure there was some true animosity between them. Weiss felt honor bound to lead her own team. She felt it was her job as a Schnee to do her best in everything and be the best out of everyone. Being the team leader is something that she would have naturally craved, and in the heiress's eyes, Ruby took that from her.

But there were also masked feelings there. Blake suspected that Weiss was laying into Ruby so much because Weiss couldn't handle the alien feelings she was feeling. Weiss Schnee wasn't _gay. _She couldn't be. The very idea was prosperous!

Blake suspected that Daddy Schnee had a role in that as well. The old man was probably still archaic enough to think of homosexual relationships as unseemly abominations, never something a noble Schnee would even think of engaging in. She honestly didn't know if Weiss shared in that mindset, but suspected that if she did, that she was in for quite an identity crisis. Whatever the case, Blake Belladonna was faced with a choice.

She could kill Weiss physically, ending her life with her cold blade in the middle of the night.

Or she could kill her soul, slowly making the Heiress sully her clean, untainted mind with thoughts of her adorable little cookie-loving naïve short partner until the girl cracked and had to admit she was head over heels in love with her female partner to the whole world!

As the thoughts formed in her head. She knew she had made her choice.

_I hope your ready Weiss. Deny it all you want, but I will make you stutter, calling Ruby a b-baka, or perhaps in your case, d-dolt, until you can't take it anymore and in the heat of the moment grab the young girls face and shove your tongue down her throat faster than she shoves jars of cookies down that throat._

"MUHAHAHAHA MUAHAHAHAHA FWMUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Blake began cackling madly, her dark quest for revenge on her nemesis realized.

She laughed shamelessly, completely unaware of her surroundings. That is, until the quiet around her was broken with a loud grunt.

Unfortunately, it was a grunt of physical exertion, and not pleasure. Looking around, she saw that she was in a rather dusty part of Beacon. The hallway, while not dirty, looked as though it had been awhile since it had last been used. There was a small layer of dust laying across the various tables and benches, as well as the doors leading into what Blake could only assume were unused classrooms. The newly awakened morning light poured in through the window at the end of the hallway, it's beams full of dancing dust particles. Within the pillars of light, stood an extended ladder, leading into what looked like an open attic hatch. Another grunt told Blake that the sound originated form the space the drawn ladder lead to.

Blake slowly approached the ladder, curious as to what laid beyond. As she came within Arm's length, a violent battle cry boomed from the supposed attic, startling her. Looking up, Blake saw nothing, nothing except some brown wooden bars making up what she assumed to be the roof.

But those grunts kept coming and coming. In a moment of further curiosity, Blake tested the ladder to make sure it was still stable, and, finding that it was, she started to take careful steps up the wooden device.

As her eyes broke the horizon of the attic floor, she was greeted with a curious sight.

Velvet Scarlatina, dressed in a tank top, dark pants, boots, and a jacket tied around her waste with her hair tied up in a ponytail and sweat pouring down her face, was standing in a metallic circle with a series of training dummies standing at it's edge. The dummies were metallic contraptions meant to mimic a man and looked similar to a mannequin. Though, unlike Mannequins, these had deep scars all over their surface showing their years of generous service.

Her thunderous steps heralded the impact of her hard light (Blake assumed) sabre. The metal drone creaked underneath the force but didn't move an inch. Blake recognized these types of practice Dummies from her time in the Fang, but the Fang, and most places, had stopped using them some time ago, even before Blake left. While sturdy and effective, it was simply so much simpler to use projected images to train. You could never break an image; you would never have to do maintenance on an image. The advanced computers could even calculate how much damage you would have done to the image with your strike had it been a real thing. While these dummies were certainly strong and sturdy, they were just a product of a forgotten age. What was Velvet doing playing with these old toys?

The Rabbit continued her rapid strikes, making the poor metal man groan and cry with each one, but she did not let up. With a sudden overhead heave, her weapon transformed into a large hammer, coalescing perfectly in The Rabbit's hands. Just before she could bring it down on the poor Tin Man's head, a great hiss sounded throughout the room, and the edge of the circle started moving counterclockwise, taking all of the dummies, but not Velvet, who stood closer to the center and not the edge, with it.

The Rabbit quickly adapted to the change, her weapon instantly changing into a handful of pocketknives before she started throwing them at the various mannequins with Deadly accuracy, nailing them in the head and squarely in the chest.

Seriously that girl's weapon was just plain cheating. How did it even shift? Was it tied to her mind? Was there some vocal component, did she whisper to it to make it change in such a small voice that people didn't hear but the weapon did. Whatever it was, Blake thought that it as quite frankly unfair.

No, she certainly wasn't jealous! Why would she be jealous?

"You know the regular training rooms ar-" Blake began before she was swiftly interrupted.

Moving her head just in time, Blake narrowly avoided a lightning fast headlight dagger that made a devilish hiss as it past.

Blake turned to look at the blade, planted several inches deep in the wall just behind where her head had been moments ago, ringing as it vibrated with force.

"Well good morning to you too." Said Blake perhaps a little too energetically.

The Rabbit's eyes went wide with concern, her hands coming up to cover her mouth as a gasp escaped her lips. "Oh my god are you alright?!" She asked, her voice fraught with concern.

"YEP." Blake squeaked out, really just happy to be alive.

The Rabbit casually hoped over to Blake, moving with a wild grace. She stopped with a thud infront of Blake, her sweaty chest and partially exposed cleavage heaving with the Faunus's breaths.

"I'm SO sorry. I didn't know you were there, and I just reacted." Velvet apologized, looking Blake up and down frantically, probably searching for cuts.

"D-don't worry about it." Blake said, putting her hands in front of herself instinctually.

Velvet's brown eyes focused for a moment on the girl, with an undiscernible emotion behind them.

"Are you sure?" she continued to press.

"I'm fine. Really." Blake continued to reassure the girl. Really, she should have known better than to interrupt a hunter's training unannounced like that, so suddenly. A hunter's life could make even the most stable of people a little jumpy at times.

That worried expression was replaced by a bright smile, only furthered by the energy coursing through the Rabbit's body after her exercise. "So, what were you doing up here? No one ever comes up here but me?" She asked, hands on her hips and perhaps a little to close to Blake for comfort.

Backing up slightly, Blake replied, "I could ask you the same question. You do know about the training rings on the ground floor, right?"

"Oh, yeah, those. I use them every now and then."

"So why are you up here?" Blake asked without thinking. As the words left her mouth, she felt a swift twang of guilt. That was her business and Blake had no reason to pry that bluntly.

The Rabbit started rubbing the back of her head and stepping back and forth. "Well… I guess it's stupid, but…"

The girl trailed off, but Blake stared determinant into her eyes, and raised an eyebrow in response. Just because it wasn't Blake's business doesn't mean she would stop the girl from telling her. She was curious dammit!

"I-I guess I'm just a little shy?" She worded the statement like a question and shrugged as she spoke. "I just don't like people watching me train. It's not like I'm worried about boys checking me out or something, or that I'm ashamed of my body or skills. It's just that I get nervous when people watch me, especially if I'm exercising. It's like I'm just inviting people to make fun of me. Why would a little Faunus be trying to make themselves strong right? It's already bad enough just going to this academy. Plus up here it's so much quieter and I can go at my own pac-"Velvet continued on but Blake stopped listening.

Of course. Why would Velvet ever want to use the public training arena? She was completely right when she said it was just asking for people to make fun of her the whole time. They would snigger as she passed, avoiding the terminals she used for fear of her 'animal germs.' And those were the tame ones. Sometimes, the discrimination could get much more aggressive, and even violent.

"I completely understand." Blake blurted out. Apparently, while Blake was spaced out Velvet had continued talking, and Blake had just interrupted her. The Rabbit now starred Blankly at Blake.

"I'm sorry?" she asked, perhaps not hearing Blake. But Blake suspected she simply wanted to hear those words again. And Blake was more than happy to oblige.

"I said, I get it. You get hounded so horribly in the public facilities that you chose to use these ones hidden away from society's judgmental eyes. It's perfectly normal and something I think anyone would do in your case." The normally quiet girl said with pride.

Velvet's smile widened, "Oh, really, it's not that bad. Honestly, I just usually get howls and a few dirty looks. I could really go if I wanted too-"

"But you shouldn't even have to put up with that. It's disgusting, and I understand why you chose to avoid it." If Blake were brave enough to show her ears in public, it's probably the same choice she would make.

The girl stepped towards the ring, untying her jacket from her waist then putting it on. "Well, on behalf of all harassed Faunus trying to work out, thank you." She said bowing dramatically.

"It is my pleasure." Blake expressed, holding the hem of her skirt and curtseying.

Velvet laughed, a lighthearted giggle escaping her pink lips.

She then stepped over to a nearby computer rigged into the wall. Pressing a few quick keys, the ground started producing a loud mechanical sound, before the mannequins were drawn slowly into the ground.

Man, and this is the dated stuff, Blake thought.

"It's really not that bad up here, though. It's not like I'm missing a whole bunch by not going to the regular rooms. It's really… Peaceful up here, with no one around. Even when I'm beating these things into oblivion, it's just so calm here, you know? And I guess it's kinda liberating to know that no matter how loud I shout, no one would have to listen to me." Velvet admitted strutting back up to Blake as the machines were absorbed into the floor.

Again, too close, Blake thought as she stepped back slightly from the Rabbit. Or maybe she was in normal speaking distance, and Blake just had a larger bubble than others.

"I get it. There certainly times I wish I could just get away from people. Certain members of my team especially. I'm not naming names, but let's just say that someone takes the phrase royal pain to the extreme." Blake admitted, thinking of all the times she wanted to escape from Weiss.

Velvet laughed for a moment, "I'd imagine!" she said.

Continuing on, she asked, "Hey, you never told me how you found this place. No one ever comes by here except for me. There aren't any classes around here or anything like that. Were you lost?

The darkness's evil thoughts penetrated Blake's mind. _"Well, should we tell her that while deciding whether to murder our teammate or to make her admit her gay crush for our leader we started laughing manically and lost track of where we were? We can probably leave out a few details." _

"Funny you should ask. I was actually escaping from that princess we were just talking about. She decided the whole team had to get up at six thirty because she wanted to, and I left because I was tired of listening to her and wanted to be anywhere but there. I started walking around the school aimlessly until I ended up here" Blake told Velvet, not exactly lying.

"Ahh." Velvet nodded in understanding, then looked at a watch attached to her wrist. "Anyway, I probably have to go. I still have to take a shower before class. See you around, alright?" Velvet said as she began to walk towards the attic's entrance.

"Sure." Blake deadpanned, leaving the room after Velvet had climbed down the ladder then began moving towards Team RWBY's dorm room, hopeful that Weiss was no longer yelling over everything.

Blake had returned to find the dorm room in a kind of busy quiet, where everyone was trying to get things together for class. Ruby was taking a shower, Yang was doing her hair, Weiss was looking over her notes, already several chapters ahead. Blake decided to take the time she had to read for a while, maybe take off the edge of that morning anxiety.

The next few minutes passed uneventfully, and soon enough the group was heading off to class. Inside, Blake sat down with her team, and beside them was team JNPR. Various other students filled the rows and seats.

A light chatter permeated the room, settling over it like a warm blanket. Everyone around Blake seemed content to chat away while they waited for class to start. Blake, for her part, waited patiently in her seat.

The chatter was stopped a minute later when Professor Port walked in, his glorious steps making thunderous booms as he stepped. Round as the man may be, his natural weight could not have caused his steps to be that loud. He wanted to be heard when he entered a room. He stomped. He made his feet that loud.

"Students. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Professor Peter Port, and I will be your Grimm studies professor for this Semester." He loudly proclaimed standing in the center of the room, hand over heart.

"I'm sure we're going to have a wonderful time together learning about the monsters that plague our world." He stated, his eyes, scanning over the crowd of students before him. They stopped as they passed over Yang.

"A very wonderful time indeed…" he trailed off.

"_Back, you lecherous beast! That Harlot is my prey. You shall taste of my steel if you so much as lay a finger on her, you senile old fool!" _Blake's darkness inwardly hissed as another looked at her mate. Blake, however, kept a straight face.

Yang for her part looked shocked, stunned. Her wide eyes starred blankly at the man, as if to ask him if he seriously just did that.

_So, this is what we will have to deal with at Beacon_, Blake thought as she watched the Old man's eyes shamelessly dart back to Yang every few seconds.

How very fitting for a top tier Huntsmen Academy.

"Now, Class! We will begin today by discussing in a general term what we fight." Port stated.

Then holding his arms out in front of him as if he was telling a ghost story, he said in a mock scary tone, "Monsters… Demons, Prowlers of the night. Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names…"

Placing his arms behind his back he then straightened his posture. "But I like to call them PREY. AH HO HO." He proudly proclaimed.

Blake watched this, thinking his little joke was cute. No where near funny enough to laugh, but cute nonetheless. Silly Bravado can be entertaining in small doses.

Just as Port was about to continue, a crashing sound came from the classroom door. The door slammed open as a young Elephant Faunus man came crashing through. He was large, and round, almost comically. The saddest part about him was his face. It was completely enveloped by his Faunus trait, a large elephant trunk shooting out of where his nose should have been. He fell to the floor, dropping the supplies he had been carrying in his hands on the ground. He immediately began chanting apologies to Professor Port as if the word sorry was some kind of prayer as he hurriedly began reclaiming his belongings.

"Hello, Mr…?" port trailed off, looking down at the boy as he continued to pick up his fallen luggage from the ground.

Standing up, holding his things haphazardly in his hands, he said while trying to simultaneously balance the weight of those objects in his hands, "Henry, sir. Henry Dumblis." In a light mannered voice.

"Well, Mr. Dumblis. Since it's so early in the semester, I will excuse your tardiness this one time. Please, take your seat." Then his eyes lit up with a fiery vigor. "I have a story to tell all of you."

Blake didn't know why, but at that moment all of her instincts were screaming at her to run, to hide, to go as far away as humanly possible from this professor standing before her. It was like a million swords were shooting towards her face, so great were the warning bells sounding off in her mind.

But those kinds of thoughts were stupid. Blake just needed to calm down.

What was this arcane power?

What was this eldritch ability?

This professor's voice, it was another dimension of suffering. Another universe of pain.

Even now, Blake looked longingly at the window, thinking about how sweet the embrace of death would feel right now.

But alas, even the power of gravity might not be enough. Considering how far up this classroom is, the fall would be unlikely to put an end to Blake's suffering. Aura was pesky like that. Maybe if she said she had to go the bathroom, the just found the highest place on campus…

When Blake had thought that his little joke at the beginning of class was cute, she had been dead wrong. It wasn't a kind little embarrassing icebreaker he used to make the students feel more at ease.

No, it was a warning. A small taste of the horrors to come.

Blake had never imagined someone could talk so much about themselves in a single setting before. She also had no idea how any story full of action and Grimm hunting could be so boring it was literally painful. While Blake wasn't as into fables or fantastical battles as Ruby, she still liked epic fights every now and then in her stories. This man, however, brought them to the extreme.

Every detail, every step, every hard-fought battle he survived with only his sure tenacity, he made sure to mention all of it. His tales of Heroism stretched on and on like the horizon he sought to conquer.

Apparently, Port had fought two deathstalkers barehanded while riding atop a nevermore. Did Blake mention he was blindfolded, too? Had Blake ever heard about anyone doing that before? No. Did she need to know of his glorious battle? No. Did it teach her anything more about the Grimm? Maybe. But Blake was too annoyed to listen. There might have been little details in there, small things that would help them fight in the future. But finding them required far too much brain power. Right now, Blake would consider herself lucky if she could find the cognitive energy to even stay conscious.

And it looked like she wasn't the only one, she thought as she did her best to half listen to the man. The entire class seemed to be experiencing the same pain Blake was. Some of them were selfish, choosing to abandon the rest and fall into a blissful slumber. Some soldiered on, barely hanging on as their eyelids dropped and their heads nodded gently back and forth.

Yang was out like a light. Gone, in a whole nother galaxy. The classroom could have exploded, Grimm could have come pouring in, even that stupid boy band Yang likes so much could have come into the room for a live performance, and Yang would have slept through it.

Ruby was awake but paying attention to anything but Port. Perhaps the girl was smarter than Blake originally gave her credit for. Doing that might be the key to keeping Blake's already fractured mind from shattering completely in Port's presence. Ruby looked like she was taking notes. At least she would if anyone were to glance at the girl. Blake could see that she was in fact drawing a poorly done picture of the Demonic Professor infront of them.

Weiss was diligently taking notes, no obvious signs of fatigue plaguing the girl, except when she looked over at her teammates, then all of the sudden she seemed to age right before Blake's very eyes, and the years came the fastest when she looked at Ruby, or should she be referred to as Picasso right now?

But if Weiss could weather this storm, could wade through these waters, could listen to Port without losing her mind or falling asleep, then perhaps this girl didn't even need a team. Perhaps she really was so much better than them, like she liked to act like.

She would have to be leagues above them, perhaps at a regular huntress level, to listen to Port unaffected.

Blake's thoughts were interrupted as a few words of Port's slipped into her ears, perking her attention.

"The moral of this story, students…"

Moral of the story?! Does that mean it's over?! Has the dawn come over this dark night?

"Is that a true huntsman must be Honorable." Port said as Ruby showed her cruel drawing to Weiss, who became the picture-perfect representation for the word "unimpressed".

"A true Huntsmen must be dependable…" He said as Ruby accidently spilled her pencils all over her desk. Weiss had to rub her forehead, and her skin flushed.

"…Well educated." He continued while Ruby decided to start picking her nose. Weiss's teeth started to grit.

"… and wise." He finished as Ruby sneezed, spraying all sorts of liquids over her skirt.

"So, whom among you believes you are the embodiment of these traits?" Port asked to the class.

"I DO!" Weiss jumped up at the words, practically brimming with energy.

"Ah, Miss Schnee. So, you believe you have what it takes to become a fine huntress?" He asked, an amused look in his eyes.

"I do, sir." She proudly answered, with militaristic pride.

"Well then come on up. Let's see if you're really prime huntress material." He beckoned the Schnee to the front of the class. On another note, Port's eyes drifted dangerously over to Yang when he said, 'prime huntress material.' Blake didn't know what to make of it, but she was just glad Yang wasn't awake to see the hungry look in the Professor's eyes.

Weiss haughtily strutted up to the front of the class, and Port kept that amused, knowing expression on his face. He walked over to behind his desk, drawing a large cage from it, that was constantly banging back and forth, as if it was holding some wild animal inside it. "Now…." Port began.

He then walked over to the side of the classroom opposite Weiss, then sat down the cage.

"Face your opponent." He then opened the cage to reveal a very angry boarbusk that came rolling with ferocious velocity at the heiress.

Weiss's rapier pierced the Boarbusk's stomach with a great effort, the heiress falling with her sword as she plunged into it's soft underbelly.

"Well." Blake thought. "That was quite a show."

The battle had devolved relatively quickly. What should have been a simple duel with a relatively simple Grimm soon turned into a grueling battle. It's not like boarbusks were particularly dangerous Grimm, speaking relative to their training level as first years in an academy, that is. Was it simply that this creature countered Weiss's style?

No. That's not it. Blake had seen it clear as day. The drama between Ruby and Weiss had come to a head during that match, affecting the heiress focus. Apparently, Weiss was just so fed up with Ruby that she decided to go down there and prove how she was the proper huntress.

But oh, how wrong she had been. Sure, she had defeated the beast, but not without pointers from the very girl whose existence the Schnee was rejecting. Ruby had to tell Weiss how to defeat the boarbusk. And how did Weiss respond? She yelled at the young girl, befeathering her for simply looking out for her. Not only that, but Weiss had apparently thought it so important to get her last word in that she took her eyes off the enemy in a battle. Just to yell at someone who she didn't like.

And this girl wanted to be leader?

Sheesh, looks like that was a dodged bullet. Still, the battle was now over.

"Bravo." Professor port proudly congratulated Weiss.

"Bravo." He repeated. "Indeed, it seems we are in the presence of a true huntress in training."

Weiss said nothing. She rose and curtseyed to Professor Port, who began clapping for the young girl, a manly tear threatening to pour down his face. A wave of applause washed over the room. Whether or not they were genuinely impressed with her performance or simply conforming and following Port, Blake didn't know.

Ruby clapped weakly, her hurt eyes looking down at her lap.

As the students continued celebrating Weiss's victory over the Boar busk, the bell suddenly rang, signaling the end of this period. Weiss confidently strode over, collected her things without saying a word, and walked out, Ruby looking like she was about to vomit the whole time.

As the heiress walked out the door, however, a look of newfound courage blossomed over the young leader's face. Grasping her fist, Ruby quickly dashed off to catch Weiss, not even gathering her things and leaving a cloud of rose petals in her wake.

_Good luck with that, _thought Blake as she packed up to get ready for her next class.

Ruby was walking down the beacon Halls impatiently, mind running at a thousand miles as she racked her brain, trying to find a solution to her current predicament.

Professor Ozpin's words had hit home. Ruby understood what she had to do. That is, she had to be the best huntress she could so that all her teammates, and more specifically Weiss, would respect her, both as a leader and as a person. She knew she had to work harder both in classes and in the field with her team. She knew she had to strive to be better than she really was to give hope to those around her, she knew she had to make Weiss and everyone else proud, and Ruby was more than willing to do that.

It's just that she didn't know how, exactly.

Oh, it's so easy to just say, "Oh, if you wanna get better at something, just practice. Just study, just do it, etc. But what if those kinds of strategies didn't work? What if someone couldn't even understand the base of something, much less the harder aspects? What are they to do then? Just bash their brains against it until osmosis sets in and they figure it all out?

No, Ruby had a better idea.

It was so simple; Ruby couldn't see why other people didn't get it. Teachers and people who had been in the field knew their subjects like the back of their hand. It was second nature to them. They couldn't imagine a world where they _didn't _know their field. It was an ingrained part of them, like walking or breathing, and you couldn't _teach _someone to breath. If someone were to ask, they would just get a reply like, "Umm, I don't know, you just do?"

Of course, Ruby knew it wasn't that extreme with teachers. After all, it was their job to share their knowledge. It's just that she felt like she might be better taught by someone closer in mind to herself. Someone who understood the hurdles of learning the material the professors had long since overcome. And so, it was with that that Ruby Rose decided to find herself a tutor.

Thankfully, it was really only one class she felt she was going to have any real trouble in. History would be fine, as long as Oobleck didn't focus too much on like dates and the names of battles and stuff. Combat class would be _excellent_, Ruby though while reaching down to silently caress her baby.

It's just Grimm Studies, the class which Ruby thought was going to be one of her easiest classes coming into Beacon!

It would be one thing if the class was actually about Grimm. But it's not! So far, it's just been Port recounting his, "memories of a bygone age," as he was so fond of saying. The class, at least up until now, had literally been about Port's huntsmen career, not actually about Grimm. And Ruby didn't know how to study for that! What, was she just supposed to ask the guy for an autobiography?!

The thought made Ruby shiver. For Port more than likely did have an autobiography. It was probably engraved with gold, full of shirtless pictures of the man. Ruby's very blood ran cold when a stray, dark thought breached her mind from the depths of Oblivion.

Port would probably give her a special copy to give to Yang, with a special note in the front, asking her to stay after class for, 'extra lessons…'

Ruby felt the sudden need to find the nearest trash can, for she was about to do her best Jaune Arc impersonation.

Ruby **slammed **the dorm room open, uncaring for the ruckus it would cause.

For she had found her salvation.

You see, while Ruby was escorting breakfast out the way it came, she saw something that reminded her of a certain someone. Deep within the confines of the trashcan, hidden underneath all the bile Ruby was spewing forth, was a single, solitary discarded Tuna sandwich.

Blake really seemed to like tuna. It was seriously like, her favorite food. The girl downed the stuff like Ruby downed cookies. And so, it was that while Ruby was puking into the trashcan vigorously, without a care for who saw, that she saw that sandwich, and immediately thought of the strange girl.

They hadn't really talked much. Really all she knew about the girl was that she was Yang's partner, and that she was a cool enough for Ozpin to ask her to help him with an experiment. So that must mean she's like, awesome!

Maybe even Awesome enough to help her with Grimm studies homework?

I mean, if she was trusted enough to be given a task like putting on the show she did on the ride here, then she was obviously strong, and smart, and probably had like super mega awesome grades and stuff from her last school. She must have been a like, A+ student across the board. She would know what's going on in class, right?

Right?

"**YOU." **Ruby spoke darkly, her voice betraying her passion and desperation as she pointed straight at the girl sitting on her bed, passing the time with a book.

Her frame visually tightened at the words, and her Amber eyes barely crept over the cover of her book, that the Black-haired girl seemed to visually hide behind.

"Y-yes?"

Ruby rushed to her side in a burst of roses, clutching the maiden's hand, so she would know the situation was truly dire, that Ruby was in real need of her assistance.

"You. You're smart, right?"

Blake's eyes refused to meet Ruby's, even as a light blush graced her cheeks. "I-I guess."

She was quickly cut off by Ruby, who energetically said, "Like, smart enough to tutor somebody, tutor someone in, oh, I don't know…" and then Ruby's voice rose even higher to a squeaking pitch.

"…Grimm studies?"

Blake's face instantly darkened, as the girl hid her face beneath her bangs. "Umm… About that…"

Ruby didn't give the girl a chance to finish, as she fired off again, looking madly into Blake's eyes. "Because I like, have to do better in there. I think I can like, pass it. Maybe. But the point is that I need to do more than just pass it if I want people to respect me as leader, and stuff."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "By people I assume you mean Weiss?"

B-But what? How? How did she know?! What kind of sorcery is this?

Ruby must play the fool. No one can know. "Bwh'aa, what? Weiss, HA. What makes you think Weiss would be the one I'm worried about?" Ruby laughed off, feeling the words peter out as she said them when Even Ruby herself had trouble believing them.

Blake fixed her with a critical glare, one eyebrow raised in question. "So who are you worried about then?"

Ruby defined such allegations, true as they may be. "Come on, Blake. There's absolutely nothing wrong with me and Weiss-"

"Weiss and I." Blake corrected, interrupting Ruby.

Ruby felt wave of irritation threaten to rise throughout her, but quickly battered it down. "There's nothing wrong with Weiss and I." she restated her position.

"…" Blake said nothing, but continued to look with this critical, questioning glare at the young girl.

"Are you sure? Because it seems like she is always on your case for something. She might bully everyone, but she really seems to have it out for you." Said Blake.

Ruby cowered beneath Blake's gaze. "Uhh, well, you uhh, see…" Ruby trailed off, as Blake only seemed to become more and more menacing as Ruby went on.

And so Ruby gave up, and with a sigh said, "Alright. You win. I, I guess I wanna, like impress Weiss and like make her stop hating me. Alright, I said it. Happy now?"

And to Ruby's bewilderment, Blake did indeed look happy. Very happy. Almost creepily so.

"Ohh. I see. You want the Schnee to see you in a different light?" Blake asked, her eyes wide and focused.

When had we started to call Weiss 'The Schnee'? "I guess…" Ruby trailed off, suddenly feeling slightly frightened by Blake.

"You want her to look you in the eyes, admit she was wrong, admit that she's been wrong all her life, then she would throw herself into your arms seeking redemption from all her foolishness-" Then Blake leapt off the bed, and began looking towards the celling, and from that point on, spoke only to the sky and not to Ruby.

"AND SHE WOULD CRY, AND CRY, AND CRY SOME MORE. BUT YOU, RUBY ROSE, WOULD BE THERE TO HOLD HER CLOSE AND WHISPER IN HER EARS AND TELL HER THAT IT WILL ALL BE ALRIGHT-"

"Blake?!" Ruby asked, thoroughly confused.

Said girl immediately stopped her antics, placing her hands behind her back as the mysterious stage lights that had centered on her ceased to exist.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat. "Many apologizes. Carry on."

Umm… What? Ruby couldn't even begin to fathom what she had just seen. And she grew up with Yang so that was saying a lot.

"Anyway…" Ruby stalled, trying to relocate her derailed train of thought.

Ah ha! "So, theatrics aside, I want you to help me with Grimm Studies so I can be a better leader, so I can give people an example to strive towards."

Blake looked down, critically, not like she was ignoring Ruby, but rather more like she was deep in thought. This lasted for only a few moments, before she broke the silence with her answer.

"As much as I would like to help you Ruby, I'm afraid I'm just as bad if not worse at Grimm Studies as you."

Ruby's soul burned. Her mind fell into an infinite chasm. He heart truly hit rock bottom. But no, she had come this far, she would fight for her right to demand tutoring!

"But I thought you were like one of the smartest girls in class!" Ruby whined.

"That doesn't matter when the class's content is something that will be, and can only be, taught in class., such as the fabled tales of Port." Blake stated in a manner of fact sort of way.

No. Don't say it. Don't confirm all our deepest fears.

Blake's eyes started to swell with tears, and her frame shook. "I've looked at his syllabus Ruby. The first lessons are going to cover what Port calls, _the younger years. _It is during this time, that, despite being only five years old, he would kill Beowolves and wear their coats, and he would kill boarbusks, then use their tusks for toothpicks." Blake looked like she was reading off her own will while she knew she would soon pass from terminal illness.

"BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Ruby shouted. "EVERYONE KNOWS GRIMM DON'T LEAVE BEHIND CORPSES. THEY DECAY IN LIKE FIVE MINUTES."

Blake looked genuinely sad now, genuinely guilty, like she was doing something that brought her great pain, but something she knew she had to do anyway. "We know that child." she said, in almost a whisper as she looked away from Ruby.

"But does he?"

Ruby's breath caught in her throat, and her heart stopped. She couldn't be serious…

No, it must be a lie, a dirty trick, a tactic to get out of tutoring her. It had to be!

"The rest of the semester goes on much like that, except we progress through the fables of Port through the ages, watching him grow and do increasingly impossible things. I'll spare you the details, but just know that if anything, this first section will be the easiest…" Blake foretold, her great insight granted by a mystical tome unknown to students everywhere.

The tome known as syllabus.

"And I am afraid to inform you, Miss Rose, that I am no more equipped to handle this crisis. I will only be able to meet the coming storm and face it's winds with a strong face, and a pencil to take furious notes with. I shall offer to share those notes with you, with you, and perhaps suggest you learn all you can about Grimm features and anatomy, however that is the best I can do."

Ruby hung her head, defeated, distraught. It truly was the darkest timeline.

"…"

"Actually. I may have a solution…" Blake began.

"What?!" Ruby asked. Did she dare hope? Did she dare… believe…

Blake looked at Ruby, a truly unreadable expression on her face. Her whole demeanor was different, where she had previously been distraught, now she seemed…excited?

"I propose you try to learn it. Don't you think everyone would look up to you more if you so bravely tackled it yourself? If you did what no one else could?" Blake asked.

What was with that smile? "Umm… Sure?"

"Excellent." Said Blake with a maniacal edge. "I suggest you do just that."

And then Blake turned around, walking towards the door.

"What, Blake!" yelled out Ruby, trying to get Blake to stay put.

Said girl stopped and turned her amber eyes towards Ruby, though stayed put by the door, hand on knob.

"Hmm?" she quietly questioned.

Was she just gonna leave? "Where are you going? Weren't we having a conversation?" Ruby asked, with what she hoped wasn't to much accusation in her voice.

"I told you what I think you should do. Is there anything else to talk about?" Blake calmly replied.

Ruby supposed she was technically right. Still…"Well I mean I guess not, but why are you leaving? You were reading before I came here. Wouldn't you go back to that when you were done."

Blake smiled, a dark, chilling smile, showing all of her white, glistening teeth. "I have work to do."

Then she left the room and shut the door, its hinges slamming against the frame like the sound of a headsmen's axe hitting the block.

Weiss sat alone at a table in the beacon library's indoor cafe, sipping on a cold caffeinated beverage, thinking of what had taken place that afternoon.

Why had she been so prideful? If she hadn't gotten emotional, she wouldn't have thrown a fit and acted like a fool infront of everyone. If she hadn't been so hung up on Ruby and her behavior, she could have seen how it was affecting her own.

Ruby…

She was immature. Senseless, under qualified, and obnoxious. She went and took down a few thugs and all of the sudden she was prime huntress material, even though she still had two years of training to complete.

And yet, despite all that. She was appointed leader. Instead of Weiss. Over Weiss.

It also didn't help that Weiss occasionally had, perhaps once or twice, thought…odd thoughts about the girl. But those were quickly dispelled when she opened her mouth or did some idiotic thing again, like she always did.

How could she follow someone like that? She was an idiotic dolt, through and through.

Or at least, that's what she thought. Now, she wasn't so sure… While Ruby was still undeniably a dolt, maybe Weiss had some things to learn herself.

She had gotten caught up in the moment when she saw Ruby goofing of in Port's classroom. And sure, it's Port's classroom, but still. A leader should be able to preserve through things. Not lead everyone else down their train of crude drawings and nose picking.

But… That doesn't excuse Weiss for the way she acted either. Not then, and not any other time she had bullied Ruby and everyone else because she herself was upset about things not going her way. Port was right. Weiss needed to focus on being a better person, instead of a better leader.

And so, it was that when Weiss was thinking of that that her black haired teammate plopped down in the chair across from her. Where had she come from? Weiss hadn't seen her coming, or heard her…

"Hello." Blake said, her eyes locked onto Weiss's.

Where was this coming from? Weiss had tried to talk to Blake on multiple occasions, but she always seemed more interested in her books or her, 'supreme literature', whatever that is. But now here she was, alone with Weiss, and trying to start up a conversation.

"Hello." Weiss said back, sipping on her drink, enjoying the sweat sensation traveling across her lips then down her throat.

"So…" she began, as a waiter appeared out of the corner of Weiss's eyes, delivering a steaming glass of tea to Blake, who breathed in deep before taking a long sip. "I saw what happened in Port's class today."

Weiss mentally winced. So that's what this is going to be about. Well, Weiss didn't want to talk about it. Sue Her. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said while she looked away from Blake.

"Don't play dumb." Blake's words were much like her tone. Blunt and to the point.

Again, Weiss winced, harder this time. Her face scrunched up, as if in pain. So, Blake wouldn't be giving up then…

Weiss sighed, propping up an elbow on the table and massaging her temples. "I assume you're referring to the fight with the boarbusk?"

"Not that bull fight. I'm talking about you and Ruby."

Damn this girl and her sarcastic barbs, as well as her inclination to discuss her relationship with another person. That was Weiss's business, and damn them if anyone acts like it is theirs's.

"And just what is it to you what my relationship with Ruby is? Is that all you came here to talk to me about? You know, I thought you might have been one of the less crazy people around here, but I can see I was wrong. Please leave, I have nothing further to say."

"She needs your help, and she wants to make up." Blake said just as Weiss was finishing.

Weiss looked at Blake, her icy blue eyes connecting with Blake's amber. Her help? What could the dolt need her help with. After how she acted, she didn't know if Ruby would ever want to talk to her again…

With a single raised eyebrow, Weiss said, "She… she needs my help?"

Blake's eyes seemed to light up. "Yes. Yes indeed. She is in dire need of assistance. You see, with her lesser classroom experience, she believes she will lag behind in Port's class. It's day one and she is already freaking out, wondering what she can do."

A chill was sent through Weiss's heart. "Oh."

"It's not her fault, if you think about it. She was sent ahead two years. There are so many classes she didn't take, so many things she didn't learn, and now we see the consequences. Yes, Ruby is a smart girl, but that **has** to be difficult. Going into high level classes without having the basics down first. Ruby's a smart girl, though. I'm sure she'll do fine. She might have to spend all night studying every night to do it, but I'm sure she'll figure it out." Blake pressed on, a strange amused grin on her face.

What kind of game was Blake playing? "Ruby? Study? All night long? Are you sure we're talking about the same girl? The Ruby I know might stay up all night, but only to play video games and modify her ridiculously oversized gardening tool."

The thought was simply preposterous. Not in a million years would Ruby ever put forth that kind of effort. Sure, Weiss knew she needed to start being a better teammate and _maybe _work on her attitude a bit, but facts were facts.

Blake's grin took on a maniacal edge. She instantly leaned in, frightening Weiss just a bit. Blake's bright amber eyes bored into Weiss's.

"What do you think she's doing right now, in the dorm room, while you sit here and drink coffee?"

What?... The dolt really was? While Weiss just sat here…

No, it has to be a trick. There is no way Ruby Rose would study anything other than a dessert cookbook. Ruby didn't even cook! She just gazed at the pictures longingly drooling, then complained to Yang about how she never cooks for her!

"Impossible." Weiss denied to Blake. She would not be fooled by her lies. Not now, not ever.

"See for yourself. She's in the dorm room." Blake confidently shot back with a smug look on her face.

The nerve off… Who does she even think she is…

"Hmph" Weiss wouldn't even dignify this stupidity with a responce. She rose out of her seat, and started storming off, the clack of her heels sounding throughout the room.

"Make sure to bring snacks for the study session. I'm sure she'll be hungry." Blake called out while Weiss walked away.

Weiss's blood boiled at that comment, but she would not rise to the occasion. No, she would get her revenge later. After she went back to the dorm room and found Ruby headfirst in some comic book, three bags of discarded chips by her side, Weiss would be sure to tell Blake what the apparently dedicated Ruby Rose had been doing.

Blake Belladonna laid down her bed, but her mind was far from sleep.

Now would be the time. All her hard work she had toiled away at all day was about to pay off. This would have happened earlier, but an untimely call from Weiss's father took her attention for some time, so it was now late in the day, almost night. Everyone else had gone to bed. Everyone except Ruby, Weiss, and Blake, who pretended to rest.

Even now Blake heard her partner's monstrous snores pierce the night air, more frightening than any Grimm's roar.

Blake dared not move a muscle. She laid on her side, face pointed towards Ruby's bed. Blake's slightly translucent sheets were draped over her face, hiding her prying eyes.

Ruby was dutifully studying hard. Or at least, she had been. She had dozed off again after having been at this for hours, trying to make sense of the complexities that is, "Port's most excellent tactics, how to fight like me," for the past few hours.

Blake personally hadn't touched it yet. She had no doubt that she would before it was due, and that it would be painful. But right now, there were things that were much more important than homework…

Blake waited with bated breath. Some time ago, Weiss had sent a message to the team group chat requesting to have the door unlocked in case it was otherwise, since she had finished her call and was now on her way back.

The doorknob jiggled, and Blake's heart leapt. Now, finally? Is the prophecy finally coming to pass?

At last, Weiss walked in the door, carefully. She took great care to produce as little noise as possible, then closed the door in the same way, ending the pouring steam of light coming in from the hallway.

She turned back, then her eyes went wide, a small gasp escaping her lips, and Blake knew the reason. Ruby. She saw Ruby. Face resting against a book, a textbook at that, a pencil to her side, along side a notebook with pages of notes, all filled out today.

Weiss saw proof that she had been wrong.

Some might have expected Weiss to react with denial, pointing out little flaws, shifting blame, whatever it took to make her come out with her pride undamaged. Maybe she would have, had others been watching, but Weiss thought she was alone, so instead, a look of pure concern, and care came upon her face. She instantly climbed up her nearby nightstand, an action that Blake noted was very unbecoming of an heiress.

Weiss rubbed Ruby's shoulder gently, rousing her from sleep. Blake wished that she was rubbing other things but that would happen soon enough.

And Weiss would be far from gentle come that time.

Ruby was roused from sleep quickly under Weiss's touch, then after a few stutters and cries, she awoke with a start. "AH. WEISS! I'm sorry. I- I was studying and I feel asleep"

She was stopped as the young heiress brought a single finger and pressed against Ruby's soft lips. The young girl was silenced immediately.

Weiss looked over at a fallen over mug, the previous container of the chocolate milk the girl was so fond of.

Blake couldn't see their faces, but she could feel the heiress's smile, the ice cracking. And when she cutely tilted her head to one side, Blake just about lost it.

_Iupgbialuhguvanbirenbbk, DAMMT RUBY EAT HER TONGUE ALREADY!, _is what Blake wanted to shout. But she kept quiet. For now.

"How do you take your coffee?" Weiss asked with a sweat, lovely grace unheard in her voice before.

"Wh-what, I d-don't?" Ruby mumbled out before she was interrupted.

"Answer the question!" the heiress aggressively hissed at Ruby.

"UHH CREAM AND FIVE SUGARS!" She blurted out, her voice cracking.

Weiss sighed, "Don't move."

Then the girl disappeared from Ruby's sight and climbed into her bed for a moment. Blake couldn't see what was going on, but she could hear it.

The sound of a liquid filling a mug could be heard from the area surrounding Weiss's bed. A moment, just a moment, not even a full minute later, and Weiss was climbing back on top of the nightstand, a steaming mug of motivation in her hands.

"Here." She said, holding it out to Ruby.

This girl had a coffee machine installed within arms reach of her bed? That's… That's…

_BLOODY BRILLIANT WHY DIDN'T BLAKE THINK OF THAT?!_

Things Blake would steal later notwithstanding, she brought her attention back to the future couple.

Ruby took the steaming mug, sipping on the liquid. She visually winced for just a moment, but put on a strong face for Weiss, smiling.

"T-Thanks Weiss." Ruby said, voice fraught with disbelief.

Nothing was said for a second. No, they've come so far. Now is not the time for award silences!

"Ruby…" Weiss began, a seriousness to her tone.

Blake inwardly cheered. _YASSS KEEP IT GOING!_

"I…think you have what it takes to be a good leader." The words sounded difficult for the heiress to admit, but she said them, nonetheless.

"Just know I am going to be the **best **teammate you've ever had!" Weiss stated confidently.

"And to prove that…" Weiss went on.

_I'm going to turn your brain to mush so turn around, pumpkin, _Blake finished the heiress's sentence in her head, wishing oh, so dearly that they could be the things Weiss really said.

"I'm going to help you study."

"Ahh wha'" Ruby cutely questioned, a complete lack of understanding.

"I said I'm going to help you study so get down from there you dolt!" Weiss said endearingly.

"Weiss I-" Ruby began.

"Ahh tsktsktsk," Weiss cut off Ruby. "No if ands or buts. Get down from there this very instant. I can already see four wrong answers on that paper, and you should know that reading in bed like that will hurt your back. You _obviously _need my help." Her words were still haughty, sarcastic, and prideful. Yet despite that, she seemed to not mean anything against the young girl, and it showed in her tone.

Silence. For a second, only silence filled that cold dorm room.

"Alright. You got it Weiss." Ruby finally cracked!

Yes! Sweet victory. Blake's plans are falling into place perfectly.

Ruby and Weiss both sat down at a nearby desk, a calm candle providing them light against the darkness of the night.

"Now, I only have enough time to help you for thirty minutes. It's already late and I am quite tired. We shall do this every Monday and Wednesday, to ensure _you _don't make our team look bad. And don't think this will just be me giving you the answers! I will explain the concepts for you, maybe tell you where you can find the information, but I won't be doing both your homework and my own. Is that clear?" Weiss explained, a hint of gentle sarcasm in her voice.

Ruby giggled, holding her finger against her mouth.

Then a second later and in a flash of roses, she had her arms wrapped around Weiss, who was now madly blushing.

"AWWW YOUR LIKE THE BEST PARTNER ANYONE COULD HAVE!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Don't touch me Ruby we have work to do. Come on, get off me!" Weiss tried to push the younger girl off, despite the crimson brushing against her cheeks.

Dark thoughts were stirring within Blake. Well, Darker than usual that is.

"MUHAHAHHAHAH! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAH! FW'MUAHAHAHAHAHA!" Blake intoned in her mind, like chains rattling in a cage.

Weiss Schnee was a fool. An utter fool. She had left a flank open, and Blake, being the tactical genius she is, mercilessly exploited the weakness.

Blake Belladonna would Make Weiss Schnee fall for Ruby Rose.

It was the perfect revenge. Her family would never accept such a thing, if Weiss could accept those feelings herself that is. She might just live in constant denial, never letting herself feel her love because she knows such a thing is such an extreme taboo.

Ohh, and it was just beginning. She would plant little seeds. Say little, innocent things that would slowly but surely make the ship sail. It was all so simple, yet so effective.

Weiss Schnee would pay for all she had done.

With love.


	4. Chapter 4

Blake Belladonna closed her eyes, trying to drown out the never-ending rain of noise around her. She was, unfortunately, in the Beacon lunchroom. She was joined by her team, as well as team JNPR, so at least she wasn't alone with strangers, though they truthfully were only so much of an upgrade.

"There we were, in the middle of the desert…" Nora Valkyrie, resident ADHD student/ freakishly strong warrior forebodingly said.

She was telling another one of her tall tales, as she often did at Breakfast, her mind still fresh from her inspirational dreams. Nora was a short girl, though still talker than Ruby and Weiss. She had bright green eyes and what was on some days, a bubbly personality. On others it was undeniably insane.

Ruby and Yang seemed to be latched onto the Orange haired girl's every word. They stared with bated eyes; their focus entirely reserved for Nora instead of the fresh food before them. They leaned in, slowly, as if their faces could cross the threshold of reality and fall into Nora's crafted world if they just came close enough.

Weiss was filing her nails. A Schnee always had to look the part, right? Though Blake could tell she was also listening to Nora by the way she would mysteriously stop filling when the dramatic tension rose, and Nora's great tale boiled with drama.

"Uhh, Nora, wasn't it just a playground with sand?" Lie Ren confusedly asked. He was a tall pale male with long black hair that had a single stripe of magenta. If there was ever a method to Nora's madness, its name would be Lie Ren. He was the calming sea to Nora's raging storms, the yin to her yang.

And According to Nora, he also had a nasty habit of interrupting her stories.

"WE HADN'T HAD ANYTHING TO EAT OR DRINK IN DAYS, AND WE HAD NO HOPES OF EVER FINDING FOOD OR WATER IN THAT BARREN LANDSCAPE!" Nora hopelessly wailed; her eyes wet with what looked like the beginning of a flood of tears.

Lie Ren addressed the rest of the table, his voice flat, and almost tired. "What she means is that her Mother had sandwiches and juice for us in the car, but she didn't want to go get them."

"AND THEN, OUT OF NOWHERE, A SAND-URSA SHOWED UP TO MURDER REN AND I." Nora continued weaving the tale of despair, her hands coming up and clawing at the air, completely ignoring Ren's inquiries.

"You mean that kid that wanted your spot on the swing? Nora he was like two years younger than us." Came voice of Lie Ren. Not that anyone appeared to be listening to him. Nora would soon sprout off about her dire plight, her unbearable circumstances, and Ruby and Yang would continue to listen on, entranced by Nora's epic fable.

Seeing them so enthralled made Blake wonder how these two struggled in Port's class so much.

Blake decided to put her head back in her novel and drown out this incessant noise. It wasn't that she harbored any ill will for the Orange-haired Maiden, it's just that she found her stories so unbelievable that they became more than a little irritating to listen to after a while.

Blake's eyes traced the words as her mind began to block out the sounds of the cafeteria. The voices which were previously so loud and distinctive became dull and fell into the background. Her father had taught her how to do this a long time ago, when he saw how easily she was bothered. He never told Blake where he had learned the technique himself, though when Kali, Blake's mother started yelling at her father, he always showed Blake a flawless impromptu example.

Just as she was settling in, really feeling the setting and visualizing the scenes within the words, a sentence uttered by someone across the table found its way into her mind and drew Blake's attention.

"Jaune, are you okay? You're being awfully quiet." The motherly voice of Pyrrha Nikos asked.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Blake observed the scene unfolding before her, making sure that to all onlookers she would still appear to be reading.

Jaune sat at the table, using his fork to absentmindedly move his peas about his plate in a way that suggested he was deep in thought. Pyrrha Nikos's entire frame was turned towards him. Not that that was unusual, the champion always seemed to dote on the boy night and day. Blake had to wonder if there was something there, if the teenage nobody had somehow managed to snag the world-renowned superstar as his lover. It sounded like the start to a bad romantic comedy geared for a younger audience Blake would have watched when she was eleven, but lo and behold, it was coming to pass right before her very eyes.

Although that seemed hard to imagine. Jaune had always been quite… well, how best to put it….

He was needy. Yeah, that worked. Scrawny was also a term that could describe him. Blake had absolutely no idea how he had managed to pass the beacon entrance exam. She had originally hypothesized that his own apparent physical and martial weakness was due to the boy just having an overwhelming Semblance that he could rely on completely and forgo physical training. But after watching him in combat class with Mrs. Goodwitch, as well as during their time at the Emerald Forest, it quickly became apparent that that was not the case. His own lacking physical strength and skills aside, there were Psychological exams as well, and quite frankly, Jaune would have better luck with the combat portions of the test. The Psychological exams were in place to make sure someone was emotionally ready and mature enough to fight Grimm, to take orders, to possibly live through harsh circumstances.

Jaune looked like he hadn't gone anywhere without holding his parents hand his entire life prior to coming here.

No, that was wrong. Blake was being too harsh. It just made her a little curious is all. Not curious enough to actually look into it, she had better things to research, namely Yang's cup size, but still, the boy was a conundrum.

Equally vexing was Pyrrha Nikos, or rather, her apparent obsession with Jaune.

Blake honestly couldn't figure out what going on there. Sometimes the champion got rather…clingy with the leader. She would always pay extra attention to him, making sure she was sat next to him in the classes without assigned seats, but just so she could help explain and concepts to him that he was having trouble understanding. Or at least that was the excuse she gave. She was always there to cheer him up when he lost a sparring match, which was every time he participated in a sparring match. Not only that, but she seemed to light up so visibly when he showed her even the slightest bit of attention.

Blake dared to suggest that Pyrrha Nikos, the girl on the front of every Marshmallow Pet's Pumpkin flakes box, had a crush on Jaune Arc, nobody extraordinaire.

It was heresy to even suggest, but all the evidence pointed to that one conclusion. The only question left was _why_. Specifically, why Pyrrha took such a liking to the boy. Sure, he was mildly attractive, in a plain, nerdy kind of way, but there were certainly other students here that were much easier on the eyes, and those with much more attractive personalities. It's not that Jaune was rude, no, far from it. He was gentle and kind, and every one out of five jokes he made was funny.

It's just that he always felt more like a brother than a potential boyfriend. Someone that you would have to let down gently because you didn't want to hurt their pure heart when they went and caught feelings. But Pyrrha seemed to be interested.

Although maybe that is exactly the reason Pyrrha liked the boy in the first place. Maybe she wanted to take care of someone, maybe she wanted to be the pillar someone depended upon instead of depending upon other people. It would make sense, considering how strong she is, as a person as well as in the arena and in studies, and how she seemed to patiently help Jaune no matter how long it took.

Anyway, Blake could go on and on about the complexities and strangeness of their dynamic for hours. And at the end of the day, she really couldn't say for sure whether or Pyrrha actually harbored feelings for her blonde leader, after all, it had only been a week since they started school, and Blake really hadn't gotten to know her teammates very well in that time. For all Blake knew, this was simply how Pyrrha was, always trying to be helpful and protecting her friends.

Though she really didn't seem to dote on Ren or Nora, or really anyone for that matter, as much as she doted on Jaune.

Interesting to say the least, but also, very much so not her business. And with that in mind, Blake tried to return to her book.

"What? No. I'm fine guys, see?" Blake heard Jaune inconveniently put up a front to his teammates, though she did her best to push the noise from her consciousness, letting it drift to the back of her mind as she focused on the fantastical realm within her hands.

"Is it Cardin?" The hard, knowing words of Pyrrha set off alarms within Blake's mind, immediately resurfacing her from the depths of her engaged imagination, bringing her undivided attention straight to the conversation between the Champion and the aspiring Knight.

Cardin… The name echoed within Blake. He was everything wrong with this world.

No, again, that was too harsh. Blake was always a blunt person, but she needed to learn when to cut people some slack. That being said, Cardin only deserved so much.

The man, no boy, was a racist and a bigot, and most of all, a bully, to anyone he deemed bullyable. He was almost a perfect example of the high human society, beating and abusing all those beneath him. Faunus, students weaker than him, he even nagged on the teachers, though those occasions were simple acts of insubordination and classroom disruption, the kind of things that would get him detention at most, but still would cause great discomfort to the instructor. He seemed to do whatever satisfied his ego right at the very moment, or whatever he needed to do in order to become the center of attention, much like high human society did. He stepped on those beneath him, just like high human society did, and worst of all, he even did it without real punishment, just like high human society did.

See, Cardin could actually be rather clever when he wanted to be, not that his grades would tell you that. The boy did more homework on school rules and on teacher's schedules than actual schoolwork, so that anybody that might actually care enough to stop him was always _conveniently _gone when he began picking on people. And sure, they did eventually show up, but after that, the damage was already done, and Beacon seemed to only want to take half measures to stop the boy, only giving him detention for picking fights and bullying people. And like in any good school system, if someone fought back against him, they got detention too.

Because punishing the victim always solves the problem, right?

"What? Cardin, come on, we're like, total buds?" Jaune tried weakly to sell to the group. Nobody bought it.

"He's a bully." Pyrrha stated, with no ifs ands or buts.

Jaune scoffed. "Name one time that he's-" and then Jaune put up some air quotes, "bullied me."

He would soon regret that statement.

"Uhh, he like kicks you in the shins every chance he gets." Ruby pointed out.

"He activated your shield when you were walking through a doorway and made you get stuck inside of it." Yang added.

Pyrrha spoke up louder than any of them, a righteous fury in her voice the likes of which Blake hadn't heard since her last Fang meeting.

"He shoved you in a rocket locker and randomly put punched in coordinates to its targeting system sending you who-knows where!"

Jaune looked sheepishly at table.

Shrugging and holding up his hands, he said defensively, "I-I didn't land that far from the school." His voice rose as she reached the end, like a twelve-year old's cracking voice going through puberty.

Pyrrha looked worriedly at her leader. "Jaune, you know if you ever need help you can just ask."

Nora took that moment to share her opinion on the matter. "Ooooh." She squelled, rising from her chair and flexing her admittedly impressive muscles. "WE'LL BREAK HIS LEGS."

Everyone looked at the redhead in silence for a moment.

_This one, _Thought Blake.

_I like this one. _

Jaune broke the silence. "Guys, really, It's fine." He attempted to shrug off his friends.

"Besides," he continued. "It's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to an everyone."

_And that is supposed to make this better how?..._ Blake questioned in her mind, confused as to Jaune's logic.

All conversation was further halted as a boisterous laugh came from across the mess hall. Blake turned towards the sound, and before her laid a sight she would never forget.

Velvet Scarlatina sitting peacefully as her ears were viciously yanked on by the very Cardin Winchester the table had been discussing as his team watched and laughed at her expense.

She, she just sat there, and continued to eat her food, like they weren't even there. A Faunus's trait was always sensitive, how was she not crying out in pain? Why wasn't she stopping them. Velvet had fought off Blake on the bullhead. Blake had saw Velvet training. She knew the Rabbit could fight. If she wanted to, she could probably snap his wrist right now and be done with his harassment.

But she didn't. She just remained perfectly still and took the beating.

Blake's ears were burning, both Faunus and human. The sight made her sick. She wanted to go the bathroom, run away from the ugly truth, hide away until lunch was over so she wouldn't have to see a perfectly innocent and kind girl get hurt for no good reason.

Just then, as Velvet was raising a spoonful of her hot soup to her head, Cardin yanked particularly strong on her ears, jerking her head back. The girl's spoon lost trajectory and its contents spilled all over her skirt. She winced in pain, her eyes closing shut. But soon, she was back to normal, completely pensive. She reached over for the napkin dispenser, probably to dry her now soaked skirt, but she was stopped as Sky pushed it just out of her reach.

Velvet got the message, and retracted her hand, then went back to trying to eat.

This, this wasn't right. Blake's very stomach turned with disgust, anguish, perhaps even hate. Maybe her earlier thoughts about cutting the Winchester boy some slack were a bit hasty. Maybe he really was beyond redemption. Even now, he looked mockingly at the passive girl beneath him who was just trying to eat her food. Did this make him feel good? Strong? In control? Whatever the reason, Blake hoped it was worth it. He was hurting someone who wasn't even going to defend themselves to create those feelings.

Cardin certainly seemed to know what he was doing, by picking out Faunus to exercise his physical wrath upon. The problem wasn't that there weren't people who cared about the Faunus enough to stop him, the problem was that those who cared didn't do anything. They were either too scarred or lazy to do anything. Even now, all the people at her table watched on as Velvet was harassed right before their very eyes. A few people could have stepped up, stopped him, defended Velvet. But no one did.

Not that Blake was any better. She watched and did nothing, just like everyone else.

Blake asked herself where Velvet's team was. They should be the ones to help her. It's not Blake's responsibility. Not anymore.

This is why Blake hid her heritage. The unfortunate truth was that in this country, Faunus didn't have the same rights as normal citizens. While at kingdom level, they were as free as any human, the reality was quite different. Ever since the war ended, and especially since the rise of the white fang, regional laws have been put in place restricting the opportunities and lives of Faunus. These laws, while not outright saying that they were in place to control the Faunus population, did that job superbly well. They stopped Faunus from voting, seeing as everyone who voted had to be able to pass a literacy test, which focused on information learned in schools Faunus were forbidden from attending. They stopped Faunus from traveling in the same transportation as humans, seeing as any one of them had the potential to be a white fang terrorist. They were given separate bathrooms, seeing as _Faunus carried different diseased than humans and sharing bathrooms promoted the sharing of those germs. _Funnily enough, no research to date had ever been conducted on exactly which _different diseases _Faunus carried.

Sad as it was, the situation had only gotten considerably worse since the White Fang became militarized. Sure, there might be those who feared the Faunus now and treated them better because of it, but for every coward, there was a warrior. Maybe it was someone who's relative was killed in a raid, maybe it was someone who was racist to the core and thought the Faunus fighting back was akin to treason. Whatever their reason, these people, who might have previously held racist views but not acted on them, now did everything in their power to put the Faunus down.

Really, the only places that hadn't lost their mind were the huntsmen academies. With the exception of the Atlas Academy, all schools welcomed all people of all backgrounds, as long as they could fight. After all, the Grimm weren't picky about who they were eating, so the schools weren't picky about who was killing them.

The schools, or at least Beacon, were supposed to do their best to protect their students from each other, although, as Blake was painfully witnessing, they did sometimes fail in that endeavor. They couldn't be everywhere at once, after all. And Cardin was very analytical of their presence, seeing as a Faunus was being blatantly harassed and honestly _assaulted _right in front of Blake. Why didn't Velvet run away or something? Why did she just sit there while they tortured her?

From across the cafeteria, Blake heard a noise which made her heart fall into her stomach. As Cardin's veiny hands gripped Velvet's ears like a vice and just heaved, Blake could have almost sworn she heard the sound of tearing.

Yellow, molten Bile reached up through her throat, threatening to spill its way onto the table. She had to stop this. She wanted oh so bad to stop this. But she couldn't. She was… trapped.

Blake couldn't do anything to stop this atrocity or risk revealing herself as a Faunus, and possibly revealing herself as an ex member of the White Fang. She had already tried her luck on the Bullhead with her little stunt. But to do something like that, again? No, it wasn't an option.

The cruel truth was that no human would care enough to actually get up and do something to stop them. Only another Faunus would. Some Humans might sympathize with Faunus, but few and far between were those strong and willing enough to put actually do something because of those sympathizes, and Blake had to act like a normal human. So that meant all she could do was watch and feel sorry for her. All she could do is watch, and act like nothing was wrong, just like everybody else would do.

Velvet reached for her milk carton in order to take a drink, but she was far to slow. Cardin snatched it up with his grubby hands. "Oh, looking for this?" he mockingly said.

Velvet smiled. She actually smiled up at the bully, and said, "Why Yes. Thank you for fetching it for me." There wasn't anything other than kind sincerity in her voice.

Cardin smirked, then poured the contents on the carton on her head.

Blake's hands were practically strangling her fork and knife. In her mind the silverware was a certain tall tormenter's head. Her legs twitched violently underneath the desk. Truly it was a miracle no one noticed anything. Every bone in her body was telling, yelling, screaming, begging Blake to take action, but still, she remained still and turned a blind eye.

Velvet, her face and hair drenched with milk, looked up at Cardin, the same smile gracing her features. "Aww, come on. That wasn't really necessary, was it?" She asked.

_Come on, Velvet, You can put each of those boys in the hospital in seconds, so just do it already! If you don't stop him now other racist students will see him doing these things and think they can get away with it too. Where are the teachers, anyway? Isn't anyone going to stop this?! _Blake yelled within her mind.

"_Not you." _Echoed a deep, merciless voice within Blake.

"Oh, I think it was more than necessary. don't you boys?" the monster said, sneering towards his fellows, who made grunts of approval while nodding.

_Just scream if you're not going to fight! Or run, or something! Anything more than this! _

Then, leaning in farther than was necessary into Velvet's face, he declared his stance, practically growling. "You see, I think you need to be made into an example. We need to show the whole school where you and your people belong."

Blake looked pleadingly at the scene before her, wishing for a miracle, wishing someone would do something, wishing someone was stronger than her.

In that moment, as Cardin loomed menacingly over the Rabbit, Blake and Velvet's eyes connected.

There was so much feeling in her eyes, but not what Blake expected. She expected to see rage, hurt, betrayal. She knew Blake was a Faunus, and more than likely had her suspicions that Blake's secrets did not end there. Velvet had been there for Blake when she needed her. Velvet was the only thing that kept Blake from throwing her entire future away all because of a stupid panic attack. By all accounts, Blake should be helping Velvet, and she wasn't, so naturally the Rabbit would feel disgust and revulsion towards Blake.

Except she didn't. Or at least, she wasn't conveying those feelings with her eyes. Where Blake had expected abhorrence, she instead found sympathy. Velvet was smiling lightly, with bloodshot eyes at Blake. She almost looked like she was apologizing to Blake.

Cardin looked over the Rabbit one last time, his sneer absolutely enraged.

And then he slapped away her plate with a quick jap of his hands.

The tray went flying through the air in a glorious arc, several pieces of food flying off of it as it traveled.

By some cruel twist of fate, the tray managed to finish its descent and land onto the face of a Henry Dumblis, who was peacefully passing by on the way to his table. The unsuspected impact caused him to fall over, his large rear colliding with the hard floor with about as much grace as a monster truck.

The tray then fell to the floor and made a sick, booming noise that shot through the cafeteria like a bomb.

Henry made several grunts of pain as his hands came up to pick off the food that was now all over his face. Though as he laid on the ground, covered in chicken, mash potatoes, and who knows what else, no one went to help him.

Sure, for some people it was the shock, they were too stunned by what just happened to move. For others it was a case of not wanting to get involved. For a number that was greater that Blake wanted to admit, it was that they agreed with Cardin and relished in Faunus mistreatment.

For Blake it was because she was saving her own skin, at the expense of her own people.

"Ohh, hey boys, look who it is!" Cardin gleefully exclaimed, looking towards the victim of his haphazard tray launch.

They walked cockily up to the elephant Faunus, prepared to doll out more torment for their new toy. Henry saw them approaching and tried to hastily rise to his feet. He came up shakily, and started to try to run off, but quickly slipped on some of the gravy left on the floor from Velvet's tray and fell again to the ground. This gave Cardinal all the time they needed in order to close the distance and grab the boy by the back of his shirt collar.

Henry began awkwardly stammering while holding his hands up like a shield against Cardin. "Oh, hey guys, how are you? Looks like I went and tripped ah ha, silly me, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Real silly…" Cardin trailed off, picking up some mashed potatoes off the ground then rubbing them into the elephant's hair.

Henry took on a pleading smile. "Ah ha, now come on guys, that's not really necessary, right? I'm just trying to eat, same as you."

Cardin smiled cruelly, like a card game player before slamming on the table the card that spelled the opposing players doom. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Did you bring me my extras today?"

According to Cardin, Beacon didn't feed people enough. So, he liked to make up the difference by picking the plates of his victims when he wasn't throwing them at other victims. He would walk by take his choice piece off their lunch tray. Or, when he was especially hungry, just take the whole thing. Henry was one of his most popular sources of extra grub. Blake supposed Cardin wanted to punish Velvet more than others for her refusal to acknowledge his harassment, and that was why her tray often gained a secondary purpose as a frisbee instead of an all you can eat buffet.

Henry looked awkwardly at the ground, where his fallen lunch laid unceremoniously. "Uh, Cardin, I kinda… dropped it. I'm really sorry, I'll get you more tomorrow, I promise!"

"Ahh, that's not good enough man. I'm hungry now."

Henry looked at the only thing he had left, his milk Carton, which in its reinforced cardboard box, had managed to survive the fall. He picked it up, regarding it thoughtfully for a moment, then offered it to the bully infront of him.

"Here."

Cardin let go of the boy's collar. He looked at the box infront of him critically. Reaching out and taking the peace offering, he said, "Alright. This'll work for today. Though tomorrow you better be sure to bring me lots of food."

Henry looked ecstatic. "Oh, yes definitely. You can count on it."

Carin looked at the boy with a look that was different than the ones he used on most of his victims. Normally, he gave them glares of hate, or sneers of victory. The one he was giving Henry was a look somewhere between disgust and pity.

After that he turned around. Walking away, he called to his team, "Alright guys, let's get out of here."

They followed suit and team Cardin sat down at a table far away from the action at the other end of the cafeteria, and finally began actually eating their own meal.

"Atrocious. I can't stand people like him." Pyrrha expressed, turning back around to the rest of the table.

_Just not enough to act, _Blake thought than immediately regretted it. It wasn't fair. Blake shouldn't judge people like that. She wasn't Adam. She was sure that if things got really bad, if any of them were in real danger, someone would have stepped in. And it's not like Blake was doing anything more than Pyrrha, she had no high ground to preach from.

"He's **not **the only one." Blake hissed, some of her animosity slipping out. Thankfully, no one noticed.

"It must be hard being a Faunus." Yang said sadly.

Blake said nothing to this, or anything else that was said that whole lunch. She hoped in the back of her mind that no one thought anything of it. Eventually she shoved her head back in her book, in an attempt to hide in plain sight from everyone around her. She tried to read the pages, but her stressed and overactive mind could not settle down for a moment in order to decipher the words.

Some time later, Blake sat uncomfortably in Oobleck's class.

It wasn't the chair, nor was it the desk that made her uncomfortable. Tt wasn't even the temperature of the room, though to Blake it still felt quite hot.

It was Blake that didn't feel comfortable in Blake at the moment.

Every sensation screamed at Blake, and her heartbeat cried loudest of all, rebounding throughout her whole body. She was still shaken up by the sights she saw in the cafeteria, but even more than that, she was troubled by her lack of action.

_It was too much of a risk, _she justified to herself.

_Everybody would have known who I was. _

Blake knew that while by itself that incident might not have been enough to clue people in on her past, when combined with the bullhead as well as any other things Blake might have said to people that she thought was innocent but in fact revealed some of her true nature, people might start to unravel the mystery. Blake couldn't take any unnecessary risks.

And Velvet was a Huntress, well within her rights to fight back. The school rules are very simple. Human students and Faunus students have the same rights. Velvet would have been put in detention along with Cardin, but that seems a small price to pay. And it wasn't Blake's job to stick up for any Faunus that gets bullied.

_But if not you, then who else? _A voice within her head whispered.

Blake couldn't answer it and didn't try. Instead, she shut out those wonderings as best she could and rested her head against her arm, ready to drown out the next forty-five minutes. The clock struck 9 o'clock and not even a second later a green flash burst into the room.

The green flash stopped moving and transformed into Professor Oobleck. The green haired intellectual albeit slightly wired History professor of Beacon. He stood straight and proud in front of his students.

"Good morning Everyone. I hope you've been having a wonderful day." Said the ever-punctual Professor Oobleck in a quick fashion.

_Oh, Yes. Simply wonderful, _Blake sarcastically quipped in her head.

Several grunts of acknowledgment were all the Professor received in regard to his sentiment. He seemed to not be bothered by it, however.

"Well, I certainly do hope the day thus far has treated all of you well, because it is about to take a turn for the worse. "He expressed before taking a long drink of a steaming mug in his hands.

After finishing his sip, he said to the class, "Because today, we're talking about Racism."

If there was any noise in the classroom, it stopped. It was viciously murdered and buried in a shallow grave.

Blake's thoughts went to the cafeteria and thought the Professor had found her out. That he was about to lecture the class on justice and sticking up for your people, all the while telling Blake without ever actually saying the words that _he knew_.

Such thoughts were utter nonsense though, and Blake needed to get them out of her head.

Someone Blake had never really paid much attention to raised their hand, as if asking to be called upon so they may speak, and before Oobleck had a chance to call on them, they said, "Uhh, what's Racism got to do with history?"

Blake looked over at the progenitor of the male voice, wondering how someone so stupid could get into Beacon.

_No, again, you're being to harsh, _Blake said to herself. _Just because someone is ill informed doesn't make them unintelligent. _Blake turned back around to listen to Oobleck. Whatever the lecture was going to be today, Oobleck had earned Blake's interest.

Oobleck smiled at the boy, although Blake could see that he too was stunned by his lack of knowledge by the way his brow momentarily twitched ever so slightly.

"Well, my boy. It has everything to do with it. Why, Racism is one of the most powerful motivators in human history. It has been the cause of countless wars, both recent and ancient. It has defined social structure, economies, everything really. I would go as far to say that racism is as important to history as religion, or war. Which bring me to my discussion for the day…" he trailed off, with silence looming over the class momentarily.

"So." He began, a serious look on his face.

"Who here can tell me the cause of the Faunus war?"

More Silence filled the classroom. Was Oobleck seriously asking that. Everyone knew the answer to that. It was like asking what color the sky was. Blake hesitated to answer simply because she couldn't tell if the Professor was being serious in asking such a simple question.

Ruby had no such qualms.

"Uhh, Professor?" She asked, nervously raising her hands.

"Yes, Miss Rose." He answered quickly.

"Is it because Humans wanted to send the Faunus away?"

Blake thought she heard several groans echo throughout the classroom.

"Yes, that is the basic idea, although there is a little more to it than that." He stated.

"Now, can anyone tell me specifically where the majority of human governments wanted to send the Faunus population?" Oobleck asked the class.

_Menagerie, _Blake answered in her mind.

"Menagerie, Professor?" Pyrrha's own words echoed Blake's thoughts.

"Yes, excellent, excellent." Oobleck congratulated the Champion. As it happened, Pyrrha wasn't just a champion on the battlefield, she was also a star in the classroom, sporting grades that were either at or very near the top of each of her classes.

"Now, class, who can tell me which kingdom pushed the hardest for the relocation of the Faunus? And who pushed the weakest?"

That was again, common knowledge. Really, what was the point of going over the basics? This is Beacon. Everyone knows these things by now.

"Did Atlas push the hardest?" Called out a student.

…

Apparently, Blake was wrong. Apparently, these Children still had much to learn.

"No, I'm afraid not." Oobleck stated Grimly, settling his mug on the nearby table.

"The idea that Atlas are the one's to blame for the Faunus war, that they are the ones wanted to send the Faunus to menagerie is a myth, though it is not a myth for the reason you might think…" Oobleck trailed off.

The rest of the student body seemed interested now, but Blake reclined in her seat slightly, already knowing how this story ended.

"Some of you might hear that and think that Atlas was a paragon of justice, fighting for the rights of their citizens, no matter what they were born as. Others might think the opposite, that Atlas helped to maintain the infestation of the Faunus race. Well, I am here to tell you differently. The one reason that Atlas wanted to keep the Faunus in their borders is this:"

The entire classroom seemed to hang on his every word. Blake had to give it to the man. He knew who to keep up dramatic tension.

Oobleck cleared his throat. "Atlas wanted to keep their slaves to support the Schnee Dust Company."

No one dared to say a thing. It hadn't been particularly loud before, but now one could hear a pin drop from a mile away. In fact, the sounds of her teammate's breath filed Blake's ears, just as did the subtle shifting of legs, the cracking of someone's bones, and the scratching of pencils on paper.

A hand raised from within the crowd. "But they always told us that Atlas was one of the hardest fighting kingdoms in the war."

"A lie told by the school system used to indoctrinate you all, I'm afraid. The kingdoms wanted to foster peace with each other, even if that meant blatantly lying, so they told you all kinds of falsehoods about history, in order to make a new generation of patriotic and loyal citizens who can get along with each other. and I, however, hold no such goals. I mean to tell you all the truth, and just that." Oobleck answered to the student.

"You see, students, Atlas in fact, remained neutral in the war. To side with the Faunus would mean going to war with every other kingdom. To side with the human kingdoms would mean losing their most valuable resource. So, they chose neither side. That being said, there are many historians who believe that Atlas sold and smuggled firearms to the rebels in secret." Oobleck continued.

"But why would Atlas give the Faunus guns? You just said they hated them. You just said Atlas used them as slaves!" Ruby asked the professor.

He pushed up his glasses. "Well, Miss Rose, while it has never been confirmed that Atlas provided the rebels weapons, and I doubt it ever will be, Atlas's motive would be simple. They wanted to keep their labor force."

Blank eyes stated up at the professor. He simply sighed, then began to explain himself.

"It's just as I've said students. Atlas wanted the Faunus to win the war so they would stay where they were. If the Faunus lost, they would all be relocated to Menagerie, and out of Atlas's, and specifically the Schnee Dust Companies', grasp. That means there would be no one to work the mines, no one to work in the factories. No one except the human populace, that is, and the money they would have to spend to support a human workforce would have put a serious dent in their profits. They could have done it but the Faunus were a much cheaper alternative."

Blake agreed with the professor. The dust sales of the Schnee dust company were what drove so much of the Atlassian economy. One could almost say that the company was more in charge of the kingdom than its council.

"Now, let us discuss the ramifications of-"

A knock came at the door, stopping Oobleck mid-sentence. He turned to investigate it's source.

"Ahh, yes." He said quietly, dusting off his unkempt clothing.

"Uh, Students, I have an announcement to make." Oobleck stated, standing up straight.

"In order to make this lecture as impactful as possible, I arranged it so that someone with a markedly different background, whom still possessed profound knowledge on the subject, would come talk to you today. Therefore, I introduce to all of you, our resident foreign exchange student from Atlas, Miss Velvet Scarletina!"

Blake's ears twitched. Did she hear that right? Surely not.

But lo and behold. The Rabbit, perfectly clean and immaculate despite being drenched in her own lunch only twenty minutes ago, in a buttoned up grey uniform with dark blue stripes, marched through the door.

She walked up to the center of the class, then shook hands with Professor Oobleck. The two then began whispering to each other.

Surely this had to be a dream. Surely. There was no way this was happening. Velvet wasn't an exchange student. She wasn't from Atlas. Blake just needed to wake up. Hopefully, that whole incident in the cafeteria would turn out to be part of this dream as well.

The two of them quickly finished their chat, and Velvet turned to the class and smiled. "Hello Everybody." She said sweetly and politely.

Blake was still waiting to wake up. _Any time now, _she said to herself.

"Today I'm going to tell you a little bit about the Faunus Wars." Said Velvet to Oobleck's class evenly and calmly.

Blake pinched herself underneath her chair. The pain shot through her leg, making her wince slightly, but still she maintained her presence here in the classroom. She did not awaken in her bed surrounded by a pool of sweat from this terrible nightmare.

"What the Professor has been telling you all is true. It was in Atlas's best interest for the Faunus war to end in the Faunus's favor. But something I think he didn't touch enough on, was whether or not the war has truly ended." Velvet continued to speak fluently.

Blake had to give it to herself. She was nailing all the sensations. This really looked like it was happening. Things smelled like they should, things sounded like they should. But that didn't mean this was real. No, that would be impossible. Velvet was a second year here at Beacon. Nothing more.

"But…Velvet?" said Ruby weakly. Blake looked over to see the redhead holding up her hand nervously.

Velvet smiled at the younger girl. "Yes, Ruby?"

"Didn't the war end like forty years ago, or something?"

Velvet looked towards the class. "Well, I suppose that depends on who you ask. Some would say that while the war _technically _ended forty-two years ago with the Treaty of Vytal, it has in many ways continued all these years, with it ramping up greatly as of late with the actions and presence of the White Fang. The thing to understand is that The War never _really_ elevated Faunus social status. While they were by law allowed to work and live their lives, the law never said anyone had to treat them any better. The government said Faunus could work, but that didn't mean anyone offered them a job. The only thing they achieved by winning the war was a reestablishment of the status quo with a promise of what could be. In many ways, we still face the same conflicts we did back then. The names and faces have changed, but the hearts and minds of the people have not. Which brings me to another point. There was another vested interest that Atlas had that made them chose to remain neutral. Can anyone tell me what that might be?"

The class was silent. Though to fair, a pattern of the class being asked questions that they would have no chance of answering had been established today.

Which reminded Blake. Why hadn't she woken up yet. This couldn't be… _real? _Could it?

A student's shaky hand came up.

"Yes, Henry?" Velvet said warmly.

"Is it that Atlas didn't think they would win? I mean, they would have to fight every other kingdom even if they had their Faunus at their back."

"Well… I'm afraid not. Remember that the Faunus _did _win, and Altas could see where things were going. If they had wanted to war to end, they could have ended it any time. Can you tell me why they wouldn't want to?"

A few moments passed, and Velvet seemingly decided no one could answer her question. She stood up a little straighter before saying, "War profits."

The class seemed the take this in. Light whispers crawled throughout the classroom as people discussed Velvet's latest words amongst themselves. All personal conversations were silenced however, when Velvet went on.

"You see, the war was quite profitable for Atlas, even if sometimes their territory was attacked and destroyed. Even if on occasions people died in the battles that took place on Atlassian soil, innocent people who had nothing to do with the fighting, it was still within Atlas's interest to keep the war going. That way, both armies kept going back to buy Dust, the primary energy source slash weapon for our world. Both sides had to buy from the SDC. There was simply no one else who could produce the huge amount of dust both armies needed to operate. In staying Neutral, the SDC, and by extension the Atlassian economy, soared to new heights. While Atlas was more technologically advanced than the other kingdoms before the war, they were truly propelled into the future by their newfound money. The entire kingdom experienced a golden age. And all they had to do was sacrifice all those lives they could have saved by joining in the war and ending it so much sooner."

Henry looked down at his desk. Though to be fair, no one was really holding their head up high after a comment like that. The entire classroom felt like it was drowning in gloom.

Or was that school in general? Blake couldn't figure it out.

"That's… so sad." Henry said weakly.

Blake couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was Atlas. It was the Schnee dust company. What, did he think that they were a bunch of saints who would give their multimillion fortune to charity?

Blake quickly reprimanded herself for her rude judgement. It wasn't fair to think those things about Henry. He was a kind, gentle soul, if at times a little naïve.

A sudden sound of boots hitting the ground alerted everyone in the tense classroom. "Huh." Came a distinctly male and disgruntled voice.

The seconds passed and a horrific realization dawned in Blake's mind.

This was actually happening. This wasn't a dream.

The male voice continued, broadcasting its opinions to the rest of the class. "You're damn right its sad!" Cardin yelled, standing up in his chair.

The class said nothing. Nothing except for the boy's team, who made grunts of encouragement and high fived each other. Cardin began to walk down to the ground floor, where Henry was seated. As he walked down, he told the class _exactly _what he thought about the current discussion.

"What's sad is that they didn't see what they could have done. If they had just been a little smarter, they could have sent all those freaks to menagerie and then just brought a bunch of them to work in the factories and dust mines. It's not like they would have had any rights to tell em' no, right?" he said loudly, arms outstretched to the class.

"Mr. Winchester, I'm only going to say this once, please get back in your seat." Oobleck stated seriously, with an edge that would have made generals quiver in their seats.

"While I do approve of open discussion in my class, I will not tolerate derogatory terms such as _freak. _And we are all more than capable of having a friendly debate _in our chairs. _I am more than willing to overlook it this one time, if you sit back down _right now." _

The Professor's voice was raw with intensity, like a police officer talking with terrorist in a hostage situation, trying to keep them from hurting anyone.

Not that Blake had any experience with that.

Cardin either purposefully ignored the professor or was too drunk with passion to hear him. Blake reasoned that it was a mixture of both. The boy continued walking down until he was finally at the ground level. He then walked quickly over to Henry.

"Cause, I mean, let's all be honest here, who wants to look at this guy?" He said, pointing down at the round elephant Faunus, whose awkwardness was only accentuated by the stains of food that Cardin had tossed at him earlier.

The rowdy, ridiculing laughs of his team could be heard throughout the classroom. Henry looked down and seemed to shrink beneath Cardin's shadow.

In an instant, Oobleck was between the two of them, staring directly into Cardin's eyes.

"Young Man. I have already asked you. Please go back to your seat. **Now. **We will have a discussion about your actions after class, but for now, go back to your seat before I have to tell Professor Ozpin about this."

Cardin growled. Blake thought he was actually going to argue with the Professor for a moment, but he just snarled, then reluctantly huffed, "Okay," then began to walk slowly back to his seat.

As he was walking away, Velvet spoke up, "Not to promote disobeying and ignoring your professors, but Cardin does actually bring up a good point. Why did the Atlas not ensure that the Faunus lost the war instead? The Faunus gained rights with the war, specifically, they gained a right to a wage. The SDC does have to pay each and every Faunus down there in their mines now. Surely it would have been more profitable to keep the Faunus deprived of their rights, so they could be true Slaves, right? Wrong. First of all, the money that the SDC pays its workers is a marginal amount of their total revenue at most, a true drop in the ocean. Second of all, this was a war to effectively remove the Faunus from the World. It would have been an international crisis if the SDC tried, in any way, to bring Faunus back across the borders. They would have been met with fierce resistance, and even if they succeeded, it would have cost them a small fortune in legal fees. So, they decided to take the small hit to profits and made sure the Faunus were victorious."

Velvet seemed to be… Very knowledgeable about this. Passionately knowledgeable. It was almost like she was a little kid going off on some mad tangent. And the most surprising thing was how excitedly she was saying all those things, considering who she was talking to. Sure, she was telling these things to the class as much as Cardin, but this was an explanation to one of his questions. She seemed just as warm and polite when talking to Cardin, the boy who made a habit of harassing her, as she did when she talked to anyone.

Cardin didn't seem to care. He scoffed. "Like I'd ever listen to anything a freak has to say."

Blake heard several dramatic gasps from among the seats. Oobleck adjusted his glasses, which seemed to glint dangerously under the bright classroom lights.

"Mr. Winchester, that was completely un-" Oobleck started, before he was swiftly interrupted.

"Why do you always have to be a jerk like that, huh?" a voice burning with fiery passion challenged Cardin. Drawing her eyes to it's source, Blake saw a fierce Jaune Arc, his whole body turned around and ready to pounce from its seat at Cardin.

Cardin stopped mid walk back to his seat and turned and regarded Jaune harshly.

"I'm sorry, Jaune was it? I could have sworn I just heard you say something to me. Wanna run that by me again?" Cardin forebodingly proposed. Blake could read between the lines. Cardin was offering Jaune a chance to back off, to run away with his tail between his legs. It was honestly the kindest thing she had ever seen Cardin do. Dogs who run keep their tails. And every other part of their body.

Jaune, it seemed, did not get the message. That, or he had in fact seen Cardin's olive branch and promptly swatted it away.

"I said why do you have to be such a jerk all the time., Why do you have to pick on people so much? Why do you have to make people think their ugly? Why do you have to shove it in someone's face when their trying to be nice to you? She's just trying to talk to us, to teach us. You don't have to be so toxic towards her. Just let her do her thing. If you don't want to listen, don't, just don't ruin it for the rest of us."

Oobleck tried to intervene. The professor could obviously see where this was going.

"Both of you. Quiet down this instant. Cardin, **Go. Back. To. Your. Seat.**" He said with force.

But it fell upon death ears.

"Say that again." Cardin practically growled, appropriating Jaune quickly.

Cardin's heavy footfalls resounded throughout the classroom as he marched over to the blonde. Jaune stood up out of his seat and went to meet the man halfway. Soon, Cardin was standing right in front of Jaune, looking down threateningly, with hardly any space between them.

"I said…" Jaune began.

Then he took a step back. Blake took a sharp intake of breath. She couldn't believe this was really happening.

Jaune then took a swing for the giant. Said man easily grabbed Jaune's whole fist in his large hands and began crushing them. Jaune whimpered weakly as the bones within his hand began to cave underneath Cardin's impressive strength.

"ENOUGH." Oobleck shouted, a surge of anger Blake had never seen in the man crying forth from his lungs.

A flash of Green was quickly in the middle of Jaune and Cardin, and not even a second later, both boys were in their seats. The both of them sported an equally confused look, and their bodies remained in mostly the same position as they did a second ago, minus the fact that they were sitting. Cardin still had his hands clenched as if they were crushing Jaune's, and Jaune's whole body still hung from his right hand, as if it was still in Cardin's clutches.

And Oobleck was standing back at the center of the class, his fists at his side, feet wider apart than they normally would be, and face slightly reddened.

"Never have I ever… the audacity…" Oobleck began, trying to find the words to voice his frustration.

"Winchester, Arc, you are both to report to detention here in my class every day until I tell you otherwise." Oobleck yelled. The man looked like he was holding back an unbridled rage the likes of which would even put Yang to shame. Blake couldn't blame him, though. He was just trying to teach a class, not start a fight. And if he had to get angry to order in the classroom, so be it.

Jaune looked shocked beyond belief. He stared blankly at the seat next to him, as if his eyes could burn a hole straight through the wood.

Cardin just scoffed. "Whatever."

Thankfully, Oobleck did not rise to Cardin's insult. Blake didn't want to listen to anymore drama today.

Oobleck ran a hand through his green hair, turning from the class for a second.

"Everyone, you may leave. Arc and Cardin, you two come back later. Class is finished for today." Oobleck said with an edge. His voice sounded like the low, guttural growl of Grimm that promised violence.

He didn't have to tell Blake twice. She quickly rose from her seat and began collecting her things to get out of this place as quick as possible.

Ruby, unfortunately, in her naivety, did not fully understand the situation. "Uhh, But Professor Oobleck, the bell doesn't ring for another fifteen minutes."

As soon as Blake heard the words, she mentally groaned, and redoubled her efforts to get her things and escape this room as fast as possible. Why, oh why did Ruby have to ask that? Now, Oobleck was going to scream at her. After that rude display earlier, the last thing someone should have done was challenged him in his classroom. He had to be livid after how Cardin, and even Jaune, had disrespected him, and while Ruby obviously meant well, in his angered state, he would most assuredly lash out at anyone who did anything less than precisely what he said.

Blake saw blood rush again to his face, his skin becoming redder than it already was. He took in a sharp breath, and Blake prepared her ears for the incoming onslaught.

"Don't worry about it, Miss Rose. I can dismiss class early if I so chose. Now run along now." He instead said casually to the girl.

Ruby just said, "Alright Professor," with a big smile on her face.

She then started picking up her bags and readying her things.

Oobleck… Oobleck didn't scream at her. Blake had expected a much different outcome. Although that only seems to show how much Beacon Professor's care for their jobs, and their students. A lesser person, a lesser teacher, would have ripped Ruby a new one, regardless of whether or not she was the Problem. Oobleck, it seemed, was above such petty misplacing of aggression.

Relieved at a crisis avoided, Blake finished collecting her things, shoved them carelessly into her bag, and power walked for the door. She could reorganize them later.

But a sight caught her eye as she was leaving. Velvet, in her Atlas uniform, discussing something with Oobleck.

_Velvet… She's from Atlas. I-I can't believe it… _Blake said to herself, looking perhaps too long at the scene.

_I mean, it doesn't really change anything, does it? She's still Velvet, right? _

Ruby tugging on her sleeve woke her from her coma. "Hey, Blake? You ready to go?"

Blake looked down at her redhead leader, a curious look upon her face.

"Y-yeah. Sure," Blake awkwardly stammered out, before turning to exit through the door. She took one last look behind her as she passed through the doorway.

There stood Velvet dressed in the whites and greys of a typical Atlas uniform, though her one possessed unique Blue stripes. She stood tall and spoke to Oobleck almost as if they were colleagues instead of teacher and student.

_Just what is going on with her? _Blake asked.

But it would be a very long time before Blake really knew the answer to that question.

Blake and the rest of team RWBY were walking back to their team dorms. It felt quite late in the day to Blake, despite it only being half past eleven.

"Well, that was a thing." Yang quipped.

_Your observational skills continue to impress me, Yang, _Blake sarcastically mocked the blonde brawler in her mind.

"Yeah…" drew out Ruby, a sense of wonderment in her voice.

"I can't believe Jaune just went off on Cardin like that," She continued.

Ruby's words brought the incident back to the forefront of Blake's mind. She didn't know what to make of it, despite her having trouble thinking of anything else. This one thing kept buzzing around in Blake's mind, bringing her no end of shame.

The fact that he, Jaune Arc, possibly the weakest and most pathetic person here at Beacon, had acted where she would not.

Blake bit her lip then kept walking, shoving such thoughts to the back of her mind. She would just pass through this day like a ghost for the next four and a half hours, until she could finally escape to her bed and shove herself under the covers and away from this cruel world.

"Hey, Blake? You okay?" came the innocent and caring voice of Ruby Rose.

The words broke Blake out of the trance she wasn't even aware she was having. She looked up to see a Ruby Rose looking up at her with a concerned look in her eyes and everyone else turned around with a curious glance. They all said nothing, just looked.

"Uh, yeah. I-I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well…" Yang began.

"You seem kinda… Not fine." Yang continued sheepishly.

Blake narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You've been super quiet ever since the lecture. I keep thinking I'm gonna look back and this storm cloud will be following you."

Blake sighed deeply. "It's fine. I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

Everyone gave Blake a harsh glare that she quickly decided she did not like even in the slightest.

"You know you can talk to us, right?" said Yang.

"Thanks for the offer, but really, there's nothing to talk about. Let's just get to the next class, okay?" Blake suggested, trying to change the subject.

Everyone other than Blake shared a worried look with each other. Blake saw this and was worried they would continue to pressure her. But instead, they just said. "Alright. Let's go."

And so, Blake and the rest of RWBY went about their way, all the while Blake hung back behind the rest, her mind awash with thoughts of the new mysterious Velvet, and the brave Jaune. Well, braver than her at least.

But than again, being braver than Blake really wasn't all that hard.

**A/N: **

**Long time no see. Sorry It's been so long. I don't really have much in the way of excuses, other than to say that this chapter was really hard to write. I also wanted to make this chapter good, so I kept it a little longer to make sure it was up to my expectations. Again, I'm sorry. I'll try to upload faster next time, but I'm trying to prioritize quality over quick updates. **

**So anyway, this is a pretty serious chapter, and in many respects, very emotional. I know when I restarted this fic it was because the whole thing was needlessly long and full of misery, so this chapter might seem like a step back in the wrong direction to, but rest assured, I know what I am doing. The things laid out in this chapter move along the overarching plot I want to implement in this fic. Where the old chapters were directionless misery slogs, this is a necessary moment for the story I want to tell. That is where this chapter differs from the old stuff. This is here to move along the plot. **

**Well, I'll try to get the next chapter up faster. If you liked this , or If you see a mistakes, or if you just feel there is something I should have done differently, don't be afraid to leave a review. **

**See you guys next time. **


	5. Chapter 5

Blake Belladonna laid awake in her bed, unable to fall into sleep's sweet grace, to hear its entrancing lullaby. She tossed and turned, and sought to tire herself out, but nothing she did would bring her errant thoughts to a close, allow her hectic mind to relax, or soothe her sore leg's cries.

She was plagued by the thoughts of yesterday. Of how Velvet was assaulted before her very eyes, all while Blake turned a blind eye and ignored her suffering. And when Velvet spied Blake's watchful eye in the cafeteria, helplessly watching as Cardin did what he did, did she reproach Blake? Did she show Blake the betrayal in her heart she had every right to feel? No. Instead she looked at her kindly, as if she was apologizing.

When their eyes met, Velvet gave Blake a look of sweet consolation, almost like she was telling Blake everything would be okay. All while she was being harassed, while she was being harmed, she was worried about how Blake would feel seeing it. She wasn't upset that Blake was throwing her to the wolves, saving her own skin. She was worried Blake was taking it to hard.

When Blake had left the Fang, she told herself that it was because they were going too far, becoming the very thing that they hate. But had Blake crossed the line in a different way? Instead of becoming a violent Racist like the rest of the fang, had she assumed the role of an uninvolved moderate? Had she become Someone who believes in equality but lacks the drive or bravery to do anything to seek it, someone who watches as atrocities occur before their very eyes and complain that nobody changes anything?

Blake wanted to deny it, to refute those thoughts, but she couldn't. She was to self-aware. Blake couldn't say for sure if she had really changed to that or still remained a warrior for justice. She didn't know what she was anymore. In the Fang, she knew she was becoming a villain, someone just as bad as the people they were fighting. But the thing about villains is that, in their own twisted, misguided way, they are still trying. They are still fighting. Could Blake say that about herself? Is what she's doing now, namely nothing, really better than what the Fang does? Was she achieving her goals the better way, fighting for what is right, for everyone, like she promised herself she would when she left?

Or was she running away with the fire at her heels, throwing innocent bystanders into its infernal maw so she might survive?

It wasn't just Velvet getting harassed in the cafeteria that brought on these thoughts. Ever since the Fang, she hadn't done one thing to help the Faunus. All she had been doing was running, saving herself. She was forsaking her people, all because she had a cover to maintain.

Maybe Blake was more like Ruby than she wanted to admit. Maybe she really was a hopeful optimist, living a fantasy. Could she really change the world without violence? You can't plant a forest without putting your hands in some dirt.

No. That's wrong, and Blake couldn't believe she thought that for even a second. Maybe it was better she was studying to be a huntress. Maybe she deserved to fight a hopeless fight for the rest of her life against the Grimm. She knew the Fang were misguided. Most of the time.

At the end of the day, though, these thoughts were useless. The events of yesterday had already passed. Blake could do nothing to fix them now. All she could really do was try to be better, make plans to fix things, and try to follow through with those plans. Maybe she would talk to Velvet. That could take some of this weight off her heart. Admitting her wrongs to someone whom, at least based upon the expression she gave Blake during her torment, would be willing to listen might ease Blake's pain.

Blake almost had to laugh. In her own way, she would be taking advantage of Velvet too. It was selfish, and wrong. Blake shouldn't be the looking for forgiveness from Velvet, she shouldn't be asking the real victim of the situation to help her heal. But Blake didn't care. She wouldn't be able to move on unless she did. And Velvet was strong, she could handle it. Blake figured that as long as she didn't make too big a deal out of it, it was better for Velvet than continuing to ignore the situation, further isolating her. Even if Blake couldn't save Velvet from Cardin, at least she could let her know she wasn't alone.

Blake slammed her pillow over her head, as if the cotton could block out the nonstop thoughts running rampant through her guilty mind, but it was for naught. They just kept coming and coming. She tried to force herself to sleep, but memories wouldn't stop. She couldn't rest. She couldn't forget. As good as she was at ignoring things while they happened, Blake was now finding it much harder to look the other way.

She shoved the pillow down even harder and let out a strangled cry in the night, feeling the fabric compress around her ears. The other girls were long asleep, and Blake felt confident one wail wouldn't wake them. Hopefully, this would all be better come morning. Not that Blake actually believed that, but it's what she needed to tell herself right now.

Blake did eventually fall asleep, if you can call it that. She felt half-awake the whole time and kept waking up every few hours. Terrible dreams haunted her restless sleep, and even now, she felt exhausted, despite just cracking open her eyes.

Blake had a decision to make. She didn't want to leave her bed, nor did she want to stay. Both seemed terrible options. Her bed felt awkward and offered her no sanctuary, but the energy necessary to leave this harsh place simply was not within Blake at the moment. And it was still dark outside. She had no reason to rise yet. She pushed her head back into the pillow to try and fade back to unconsciousness. However, no matter how long she kept her eyes closed, or how she tried to empty her mind, she simply could not collapse back into that black abyss. It would seem that her body would not grant her rest, much as her mind wished it. After much internal struggle, Blake decided this effort was useless and dragged herself out of the cushion's claws.

The dry, frigid air hit her like a freight train, traveling down her arms and through her feet and up into her legs. Blake considered getting back into bed but decided against it, she had lounged about for far too long.

Looking around, she saw that the room was still entrenched in darkness, and that everyone was still fast asleep, which was good. Weiss could be a nightmare in the mornings. Blake reasoned that It would have to be quite early, five, maybe six perhaps. She looked for her scroll to check the time but could not find it in its usual places. After which, she just decided to just find it later, it wasn't worth the energy right now.

Blake then traveled to the bathroom, eager for the shower's hot water that would warm her rapidly freezing and achy body.

The hot water traveled down Blake's back, soothing her sore muscles. The steam filled her vision and caused her lungs to expand. Her whole world was enveloped by this humid, all-encompassing and nearly suffocating warmth. And Blake loved it.

The hot droplets collided with Blake's body forcefully, sending shivers up her spine. She ducked her head underneath the water, washing out the last of the shampoo.

How long had she been in there, thirty minutes? An hour? Blake really couldn't say. What she could say is that she wished to stay there, under the soothing, unending downpour. Sadly though, that wasn't an option. The hot water wouldn't last forever after all, and soon Blake would have to return to the real world. The world of screaming Weiss'. The world of stupid bunny girls that let people walk all over them.

The world of weak people who wanted to do things but wouldn't.

Blake shoved the towel all over her body, scratching and rubbing it raw. After she was sufficiently sure that everything was clean and dry, she began dressing herself.

After she was clothed, she took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the hell on earth that awaited her, and opened the door, walking headfirst into the breach.

"AND JUST WHO DRANK THE LAST OF THE TEA?" An Angry Weiss demanded. Her eyes were bloodshot, she was still in her nightgown, and her face looked more furious then any Grimm Blake had ever fought. Yes, this was what Weiss was like in the mornings when she no longer had to prove that she was the best Huntress here and that she should have been chosen as leaser.

The simple facts of the situation were that Blake had drunk the last of the tea, that Blake had been the one to buy it, and that up until this point, Blake had no idea that anyone else here even liked it. Still, she wasn't going to admit to any of that. Morning Weiss wouldn't Care about those things. All She would hear is that Blake had drank the last of the tea and that would be all she needed to know. After that, she would spend the next forty minutes letting Blake know _exactly_ what she did wrong. Then, she would inform her that she was never to touch the tea again, regardless of the fact Blake brought it here. So, Blake wasn't really in the mood to let that slip and prayed that no one else knew or would rat out whoever drank the last of the tea.

"Was It you?" Weiss venomously accused Yang, who was casually going about her morning.

"Honey I don't even know what you're talking about."

Weiss seemed to only get more frustrated at that. "Well it can't have been your sister. She won't drink anything that isn't drowning in sugar and chock full of calories!"

Yang was rummaging through a laundry basket and didn't even look up to acknowledge Weiss. "Listen Ice queen, I don't know what you want me to say. Should I tell you I did it? Would that make you happy?"

Weiss huffed loudly. "Well did you?"

Yang again didn't even turn her head. "What do you think, Weiss?"

Weiss groaned loudly, like a child not getting what they want. She then turned to Blake.

"And what about you? Are you the tea thief, hmm?"

"I'm electing to not get involved in this." Blake deadpanned. Sure, she was condemning the whole room to torture by Weiss as she continued to investigate the missing tea, but hey, she certainly wasn't going to fess up.

Weiss eventually calmed down. Blake had decided to make the princess some coffee since they were out of her desired beverage. Weiss liked coffee better anyway, she just didn't want to go through the trouble of making it. Especially since her bedside coffee maker had mysteriously disappeared one night.

Since when had Blake Belladonna, White Fang terrorist, been reduced to getting Weiss Schnee, Atlas royalty, coffee?

That was about five minutes ago. Now, Blake was gathering the last of her things to see if she could find Velvet and try to clear the air before class. Over in the corner, Weiss sat with an angry scowl on her face, hands cupped around the steaming mug like it was the middle of winter. She looked like anything, at any moment, could set her off again. But, at least for now, she was silent.

Ruby walked straight up to Weiss, apparently not noticing the waves of hate emanating off the girl. She leaned over her, looking right into the mug "Is that stuff good?"

Weiss mumbled something under her breath then looked at Ruby critically for a moment, as if considering her words carefully.

"I suppose it's passable." She admitted as she looked away, drawing the liquid to her lips and taking a long sip.

"It was super gross when you made me drink it." Ruby casually stated.

This was apparently not the right thing to say. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SUPER GROSS? I MADE YOU A PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE BREW! HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY COFFEE-MAKING SKILLS!"

By the end of her outburst, Weiss was breathing heavily and was leaning so far forward in her seat Blake wondered if she would fall off. Ruby looked the same way she did in math class.

Like she had absolutely no clue what was going on.

Blake just tried to hurry along her process making sure she had everything she would need before she left. Books? Check. Knives? Check. Pencils? Check. She had nearly everything she might need for the day, though, if things kept on like they were, she might just say screw it and come back for some of it when the need arose.

Thankfully, that would not be necessary, for Yang Xiao Long came to save the day. She laughed boisterously at Weiss's sudden outburst and strode over to the scene.

"Man, you guys are just too much sometimes!"

Weiss's face scrunched up in anger, like a small dog that thought it was intimidating. "Yang Xiao Long I am quite sure I don't know what you mean but I will have to ask you to refrain from such comments in the future."

Yang just kept on chuckling. "Sure Weiss. You got it."

Weiss huffed and turned her head the other way.

During all this Blake managed to scrounge up the last of her belongings. The last object wasn't even in her bag by the time she began striding towards the door, eager to be free of the stressful environment. The tips of her fingers were gently caressing the bronze doorknob when a gentle voice broke through, shattering any hope Blake had of leaving.

"Blake? Where are you going?" Ruby Rose asked innocently.

Blake cursed the world under her breath and turned around. Ruby was looking straight at Blake, concern and worry etched onto her tender features. Weiss and Yang had also stopped whatever they were doing and were now staring silently at Blake. Silence filled the room.

"I-I was just heading out." Blake admitted. Since when had she had to justify her leaving a room to Ruby?

"I thought you were gonna come eat breakfast with us again."

Breakfast? The Cafeteria? If Blake didn't have to eat, she would never go back to that place again. She knew it was stupid and that she should just get over it, but, at least for right now, she would avoid that place when she could. Plus, she already had plans, plans that she had every intention to see through.

"Sorry Ruby, I've got something to do first. If I get finished with that and there's still time, I'll come see you guys in the cafeteria."

Ruby's gaze only seemed to intensify, and her voice only became more hopeful. "What are you going to do? I'll help!"

Since when did people shove their unsolicited services on one another? Still, Ruby probably wasn't trying to be rude, so Blake decided to go easy on her. "Thank you, but no thank you Ruby. I'll be fine, don't worry."

Ruby looked down towards the ground, and her voice turned soft, and low. "Oh."

But then her demeanor did a full one eighty, and she was looking back up at Blake with that same joyous, happy expression. "Well you go have fun then. I guess if we don't see you at breakfast, we'll see you in class?"

Why would Blake miss class? "Yeah, sure."

Then Blake clasped the still doorknob and opened the gate to the still halls beyond.

Blake walked purposefully down the halls of Beacon, one destination in mind. Velvet's attic.

She had been there before. She remembered the way. Blake would go there, apologize, and ask if Velvet needed Blake to do anything to help. Now whether or not Blake would actually be willing to do anything was another story. She was counting on her politely refusing Blake's intervention, like most people would.

Maybe while she was there, she could also ask her about how she was a foreign exchange student from Atlas. How did a Faunus even get into Atlas Academy? It seems counterproductive to the Atlassian cause, teaching Faunus to fight. They might go join the fang or resist Atlas in some other way, and if they had hunter training, they would be far more dangerous than any average off the street Faunus that decided they wanted to make a difference.

Blake's feet pounded against Beacon's carpeted floor. She rushed quickly through the well decorated corridors. Students were now starting to move around. It wasn't incredibly busy yet, there was still ample space around someone to move around, but a few students here and there made their way to what Blake could only assume to be breakfast. It was the only reason most people would be moving at this hour.

As she went further and further towards her destination, however, the number of fellow students she saw decreased gradually. Once she got into the upper wing, the part of Beacon that was rarely used anymore, the flow of students completely stopped.

Blake rounded the final corner and came face to face to face with the same attic entrance and drawn ladder she had seen the last time she was here. She cautiously stepped further into the hallway. Behind the ladder, pouring in from the window, was bright, glaring morning sunlight. It attacked the hall's floor, swathing it in illumination. It strangled the ladder, which itself cast a long, stretching shadow along the hall through the window's light. Dust particles danced in the lights wake, bouncing up and down, unaffected by gravity. Several locked doorways lined the halls, as well as beautiful, yet empty, wooden carved picture frames that hung at a slight angle.

Blake walked closer to the ladder. The hall was completely silent this time. There were no clashes of metal, no grunts of training. Instead the hallway was entranced in a calm, serene quiet, the likes of which made Blake yearn for sleep more than her bed ever could.

Blake crept underneath the ladder and looked up into the attic. Even with her Faunus eyes, all she could make out was still darkness. Was Velvet even here? Based upon their last chance meeting at the attic, Blake had assumed that this is where she would find her at this time, but it was starting to look like she really wasn't here. Blake began to raise the ladder, seeing as it wasn't in use at the moment.

A frightened screech straight out of a B rated horror movie broke through Blake's ears, and stopped her effort. She instinctively jumped back and raised her guard, her training kicking in and readying her for action.

"Um, hello?" Came the familiar voice of Velvet Scarlatina from within the attic.

_Oh. Damn, _Thought Blake.

She then looked up to see poking Velvet head out of the opening in the ceiling, an extremely confused look etched onto her face.

"Blake?"

Well then… This wasn't embarrassing at all.

"Uhh, Hi?" Blake tried.

"Blake? What are you doing here?" Velvet asked, her voice thick with bewilderment.

At first, Blake didn't respond. What was she supposed to say, 'Hey Velvet, sorry I scarred you half to death and tried to lock you in the attic. Now do you wanna sit down as I pour all my guilt and shame down onto you. Oh, also, while we're at it, you mind giving me a quick life story explaining how you, a Faunus, got enrolled in possibly the most racist school in the world? That's cool, right? Not to personal? Great.'

"I… I was just coming to talk to you about a few things. And I'm sorry about scaring you." She softly admitted instead.

Velvet smiled gently, her hazel eyes glimmering in the morning light.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Just startled me a bit is all."

There Velvet went again, always acting tough for people.

She then jumped down from the attic, landing with a thud on the floor of the hallway below. If her outfit was anything to go by, she had indeed been exercising. A glistening layer of sweat surrounded her entire body, making her milky white skin glow. Her hair was for the most part tied back in a ponytail, minus a few loose frayed strands which curled around her face. Her ears protruded through her hair, sticking up like great skyscrapers jutting out from the world of Velvet's head. Her chest was encased by a tight-fitting black strapless top that clung to her body and her legs were concealed by a pair of skintight caramel mid-thigh shorts. All in all, it was a typical exercise outfit. Blake had seen Yang in something similar on a few occasions.

"Well still, I'm sorry." Blake offered to Velvet as she landed. "I just didn't know you were in there. It was so quiet, and the lights were off. I thought you had maybe left the door open the last time you were here, so I went to close the entrance."

Velvet waved her hands in front of her face, laughing as she did so. "Seriously, its fine. You just caught me off guard."

After this she locked eyes with Blake. "Now, what was that you said you wanted to talk to me about?"

Blake's heart started contracting and pulling in her chest. Now came the time to face the music. Blake had thought she was ready for this, that she was prepared to apologize to Velvet, but now that she was here, facing the subject of all her anxiety, she was having second thoughts. It was the least Velvet deserved after what Blake did, or rather, what Blake failed to do. But could Blake really bring herself to admit that weakness, both to herself and to someone else.

She looked up, not even having realized that her eyes had fled to the ground. Velvet's face was friendly, warm, and calming, and her eyes seemed to call to Blake like home after a long day. What would she say? Was she a safe person to talk to? Could Blake trust her with this? She had been there when Blake needed someone on the bullhead. Would she be there now?

No. Blake was thinking about this all wrong. This wasn't about her. This was about Velvet, the girl who got attacked yesterday in plain daylight while no one moved an inch to help. Blake had to stop feeling sorry for herself and start taking responsibility. She had to apologize for what she did, without trying to make Velvet absolver her from her guilt. She would just say sorry, try not to make a big deal out of it, and be done with the whole thing. This was about Velvet, not her. She should be doing a lot more. She should be kicking Cardin's ass. Velvet had fought her in the bullhead, she had resorted to force when Blake needed her to, and while the situation was a little different, the fact still remained. Velvet was there for Blake when she needed her to be, but Blake couldn't say the same.

"I'm… I'm sorry I didn't help you with Cardin yesterday."

The words felt like burning oil in her throat, but she forced them out, nonetheless. Blake tried to look Velvet in the eyes, but she… she just couldn't. She was scarred. Even after all that talk, after all those crazy and borderline suicidal things she did in the fang, she was scared of what she might see in the eyes of someone whom she had done wrong. Sure, Velvet had seemed sympathetic yesterday, but Blake could have very easily misread that situation, so she kept her eyes locked on the grey carpeted floor, half submerged in shadow and half illuminated in light.

"Oh, that? Don't worry about it. Totally not a big deal."

Surprise enveloped Blake's mind, less for how easily Velvet forgave her and more for how casually she spoke about the whole thing. She immediately wrenched her gaze back to the rabbit.

Velvet was just standing there, smiling easily at Blake, like none of this mattered in the slightest.

"Aren't you upset?" Blake interrogated, stepping forward slightly and putting more force into the question than she meant to.

Velvet shrugged. "No, not really."

Blake continued to stare critically at Velvet, "But… Why not?"

"Oh, It's just not that big of a deal to me. Hey, why are you so worried about this?"

Blake's mouth hung open with surprise at the rabbit's inquiry. "How are you not more worried about this? You're being hounded, tormented, sometimes even attacked in the cafeteria, all the while everyone just walks by like nothing is happening! Even I ignored it! I just let you get bullied. After how you helped me, how put your life on the line for me, I just _watched_ as those guys hurt you. I was too scared about what would happen to me if I did anything, so I just sat there, and _watched!_"

Blake's vision clouded. While her words had started as a fiery torrent, they quickly devolved to a somber rain. She had meant to internalize all this pain, really, she had. But when she saw how _strangely okay _Velvet was with all this, she couldn't help but demand answers.

Because somehow, she seemed even more okay with this than Blake, and Blake couldn't handle that.

Blake looked at Velvet. The girl stood silently, as if taking in all that Blake had said. Sometime during Blake's rant, she had closed her eyes, Blake assumed, for now they were locked from the world. After a moment which felt like centuries, she spoke softly, "Hey, did you pour hot soup on me?"

What kind of a question was that? "Well no but I-" Blake was about to explain her lack of action and how she could have done any number of things to stop it and didn't when she was stopped mid-sentence

"Did you pull my ears?" She asked, leaning forward slightly and staring intensely into Blake's eyes. Velvet's were sharp, and peaceful. A true foil to the chaotic and faltering nature of Blake's.

"No but I just-"

"Did you do anything directly to cause me harm me yesterday?"

"…No."

Velvet straightened her posture and smiled triumphantly. "Then you don't have anything to worry about."

Blake stared silently at the girl before her. She should have been telling Blake off. She should have been demanding Blake got out of her sight and never talked to her again. Blake had forsaken her after Velvet helped her so much on the Bullhead. Blake had no right to be forgiven, especially not so easily.

Velvet looked defiantly at the girl before her, apparently taking Blake's silence as further disagreement. "You can stare at me all you want but it won't change anything. It's not your fault they did those things. You should stop acting like it is."

That's not the point though…

Blake realized that there was no point to telling Velvet that though. Nothing she could say would change her mind. No matter what evidence Blake showed her, Velvet would continue to argue her innocence. And at the end of the day, if Velvet wasn't mad, she wasn't mad. There wasn't anything Blake could do about it. Blake had already done enough, put far too much weight on the poor girl's shoulders. She would have to find some other way to get over herself, to cleanse her guilt. For now, though, all she could so was grit her teeth, and accept that Velvet didn't hate her, even after all this.

"Alright," Blake relented reluctantly, trying to ignore the tightness in her chest.

Velvet's lips curled toward her checks. Her bright white teeth glistened, and her eyes lit up like the morning sun. She tucked a single strand of hair dangling in front of her face behind her ears.

"Good. So, is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Well…" Blake began.

She knew what she wanted to know. The words danced on the tip of her tongue, begging for entrance into the physical world. But was it rude to ask? Was it even Blake's business? Would this just be more of Blake seeking catharsis from Velvet? Blake didn't think that was the case. So why did the idea of asking her feel so _wrong? _

Velvet gave Blake a curious look. _Go on, spit it out, _her eyes seemed to say.

Blake's fingers tightened instinctively, closing in around themselves with a crushing grip that caused them to burn. Fretting on about this wouldn't fix anything. Blake could go on debating for hours and reach no conclusion. She had to make a decision now. Ask now and satisfy her curiosity or hold her tongue and forever wonder.

Blake's teeth scraped against each other like huge white boulders scraping against one another. Though she kept this hidden behind a closed lip from the Rabbit.

"Why?" Blake painfully pushed the word from her lungs like a howling wind on a cold night.

"Hmm?" Velvet asked. For some reason she apparently didn't understand Blake's one-word question.

Which meant that Blake would have to utter the whole thing. She would have to say all those ugly, gut-wrenching words. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was hot, labored air.

Locking eyes with Velvet, Blake resigned herself to her speech. "Why did you just let them do that to you? Why did you let them _hurt_ you? You could have at least run away if you didn't want to fight. So why did you just sit there?"

The words started out slow, and hard to force out, but like a released dam, once Blake opened the flood gates they came pouring out in torrents.

Velvet looked at Blake with casual wonderment. _Was this all a game to her? _

"Oh, that? Well, it's a little complicated, but I guess you could say that I'm trying to set an example."

Blake couldn't believe the words coming out of Velvet's mouth "An example? Of what? Laying down and accepting abuse?" She hissed perhaps a bit too loudly.

Velvet's face did contract for a moment in offense, a scowl and harsh eyes coming to life in a flash before disappearing just as fast, "No. I'm setting an example to prove that the two species can live together." Velvet said determinedly.

The implications of Velvet's words ran rampant through Blake's head, like a wild traveling circus. Living together? Faunus and humans? It sounded nice on the surface, but she meant to prove that they could by letting humans walk all over her? It certainly didn't sound like the kind of peace Blake would want to achieve.

But then again what could Blake say about achieving peace when she sat back and let others do the fighting?

"So uhh, no offense," Blake began like many others before they said something clearly offensive. "But can you explain to me how letting a bunch of school bullies pick on you will help achieve harmony between the two species?"

Velvet chuckled, scratching at the back of her head. She rocked back and forth on her two legs. "Yeah, I guess when you say it like that it does sound a bit counterproductive doesn't it?"

Counterproductive? More like defeatist. Blake could see the line of peace she was looking at, one where the Faunus all bent to the whims of the humans. That kind of thinking was probably pretty commonplace in Atlas. After all, it was at the same time the best and worst place for a Faunus to be. Instead of dying from a lack of work, you could work yourself to death. It was a harsh trade, but one many were willing to make to extend their lives and the lives of their family as long as they could.

For those Faunus, the continuation of life depended on their acceptance of abuse. Anyone who fought back, or even spoke out, was killed. And their deaths only brought harsher rules, regulations, and abuses. It made perfect sense that a Faunus from Atlas would value peace over freedom. It was the only way they knew how to live, the only way they saw out of this waking nightmare.

But that kind of thinking would only lead to further suffering. Sure, in the short term, the Faunus would be 'better off' submitting to their human overlords, but what about the future, what about the next generation? The people of today owe it to the people of tomorrow to give them a better world than the one they inherited.

Blake was about to yell, to hiss, to let out her feelings pour out in a rushing wave, when she realized something very important.

They were out in the open.

Sure, there was almost certainly no one around here except for Blake and Velvet. No one even used this part of the school anymore. But you could never be sure, and Blake was about to say some fairly condemning things that would paint her at the very least as a staunch Faunus rights activist, and while that was true, Blake didn't want anyone she couldn't trust knowing that.

"Would it be alright if we talked about this somewhere a little more private." Blake asked.

Velvet's eyes widened in sudden surprise, then she critically regarded Blake for a moment, as if contemplating the meaning behind her words, which was fair.

It really hadn't been that long since Blake had tried to kill Velvet.

"…Sure." Velvet said after a long while.

She then turned around, keeping an eye on Blake as she did so and motioned for Blake to follow her. She effortlessly climbed the ladder, her strong yet slim muscles rippling as she moved. Blake followed suit, climbing much less forcefully. She didn't know how Velvet could trust such an old looking piece of equipment so thoroughly. It creaked and groaned when Blake rested her slim frame against it. The ladder held, but the whole time Blake climbed with bated breath, waiting for it to fall apart.

Blake then eagerly stepped onto the attic floor the first chance she got, eager to be rid of that dusty, old ladder and its questionable structural integrity. She stood up to see that the attic was lighter once you were inside. Coming in from an octagonal window on the north wall was a pillar of sunlight. It's white influence dimly lit the room, and again, particles danced in the lights path. The attic was full of wood and clutter. Boxes, old dressers, everything. Anything that could be stuffed away and forgotten about, this attic had become its final resting place. It looked as though it's previous use as a training room had been long forgotten. It was now just an old storage room and judging by the dust that layered everything in here like a second skin, it had even lost that purpose. Now, all this attic was, and would ever be, was a place where forgotten objects rested. Blake had to question if Ozpin or anyone else even knew about this place, or the things up here.

Yet Velvet had found it, and she had made it a second home. Blake had to wonder what the appeal was for the girl to use these old toys, these subpar practice dummies. Sure, she knew that Velvet had said it was to avoid the toxic humans and their judgement, and Blake believed her. Mostly. It was just that there were easier ways to go about it. She could just go at times when the nastier humans were missing, or just go with someone who could tell them to back off.

But then again, it wasn't Blake's job to question Velvet's motives for doing what she does.

…

Well, current conversations withstanding that is.

Velvet twirled around with her hands behind her back soon after Blake had finished climbing. "So, what couldn't you say to me out in the hall?" Velvet asked, breaking Blake out of her musings.

Blake turned to view the girl in question, who stood with one hand on her hip.

"I umm…" Blake stalled.

Was this really a good idea? If Velvet wanted to let a bunch of people walk all over her, that's her business, right? What right had Blake to get involved?

No. Blake had come this far, she would see this through. And when had she ever stopped to consider if she had the _right_ to do something? If Velvet wasn't comfortable with these questions, all she had to do was say so. Until then, Blake would press on, continue to unravel the mystery of Velvet's willingness to accept Cardin's attacks.

Lifelessly, like a ghost whispering in the night, Blake said, "I don't understand why you don't do anything to stop Cardin. I know you can, you know you can, and I don't understand why you think you're 'setting an example.' The only example I can think of those actions setting is one that suggests Faunus fall over and accept human mistreatment, and work to appease humans into giving us rights."

Velvet's eyes were unchanging. They betrayed no emotion and continued to regard Blake the same way they had a moment ago. She said nothing, and instead chose to stare on in deafening silence for what felt like eons.

Finally, she spoke. "I can see how some people might think that. I, however, disagree. I don't think my way will lead the Faunus to subjugation."

This girl just didn't get it, did she. "But how could it not?!" Blake again asked, the words moving like snow through her half-dead throat.

"The way the Faunus live in Atlas isn't living, Velvet. It's slavery. You said as much when you helped Oobleck with his lecture. How can you hope to encourage other Faunus to live like that, in any degree? I know that living over there probably gave you a bunch of ideas about what Faunus had to do to survive, and I understand where you're coming from, really, but we don't have to live like that! We can fight, we can live! We don't have to bow down to the humans just to survive."

Blake was breathless after her rant, but so to was she breathless before. She heaved, greatly, sucking in air rhythmically as her chest quaked with each intake. Velvet stared on wordlessly, like a rock weathering the storm that was Blake's emotional downpour she had promised herself she wouldn't expose Velvet to.

Velvet looked at Blake, a completely unknowable, unreadable, and blank expression on her face.

Then she narrowed her eyes, which seemed to scan over Blake. She wore a curious, almost teasing smile on her face. "I'd be curious to know what gave you the idea that my peaceful approach to the Cardin is somehow related to my being from Atlas."

The statement took Blake off guard. "W-Well, I mean, I just assumed-"

"Assumed what?" Velvet broke into Blake's sentence like a robber breaks into a bank.

Blake gulped. "Well, I mean, It's just… I thought living in Atlas would make you accept Faunus mistreatment. I thought that you not stopping Cardin was… A symptom of the ideals Atlassian society would have pushed on you."

Blake's vision darted back and forth from an intricate old jewelry box sitting on a nearby shelf and Velvet's form, not wanting to let her eyes linger on the rabbit for too long. The box looked ancient. It was covered top to bottom in dust just like everything in here. It probably hadn't felt the touch of human hands in years. and yet, it was undeniably beautiful. It was the kind of thing someone might find in their grandmother's house. It almost certainly would play some old piano tune if someone opened it. It even had that dancing ballerina on the top. Or was that an ice-skater? Blake had never really looked hard enough to figure it out. She had to wonder what kind of things were inside it.

Velvet laughed, breaking Blake out of her trance. "Yeah, I don't know what exactly gave you that idea. While I do live in Atlas, and while that is indeed how some less hopeful Atlassian Faunus think, I am not one of them. Living in Atlas did help me to forge my viewpoints, but not in the way you believe."

Blake looked at the other girl curiously "Well, how did you form them then? What are your viewpoints?"

Velvet tilted her head, as though contemplating some great question, weighting two important choices. Then she looked at Blake intensely, her eyes signaling the gravity of her words. "Are you sure you want to know.

Blake was a little frightened by the seriousness in her visage, but pressed on, nonetheless. "Y-Yes."

To say that then Velvet then went dumpster diving in the clutter of the attic wouldn't be that far from the truth. She fearlessly stepped into the jungle of boxes and trash, disappearing behind their silhouettes. A few seconds and some rattling sounds later, and Velvet was emerging from the pile, dragging a old wooden bench behind her.

It scrapped against the floor as she heaved with all her might in a way that was sure to damage her back. Blake almost went to help her, but after Velvet pulled in halfway out, she huffed loudly, placing her hands on her knees for support. She then sat down upon the bench.

Velvet straightened her posture, correcting her slumped back and raising one leg over the other. She scooched further to the left of the bench, to the point that her body was as flush with the wall of clutter as it could be.

"Go ahead and get comfortable then, this might take a while."

Blake noted a strange crack of her voice.

Blake sat down apprehensively, more than a tad frightened at this change in energy from the rabbit. She managed to find a _relatively _dry spot on the bench. One where all she felt was a wave of cold gently caressing her rear, instead of wet, squishy wood that threatened to crush underneath it.

Velvet had better be grateful that Blake was going through this for her.

When Blake looked over at Velvet she found that the rabbit was staring at the left wall. No, it wasn't the left wall. Once Blake looked closer, she could tell that while her eyes might have been _pointed _at the wall, Velvet's vision was in a faraway place. Her hands rested in her lap, and her thumbs kept gently brushing over each other like hamsters in a wheel.

"Well now, I guess it would be best to start from the beginning, right?" She said, not looking at Blake.

"If that's what you think is best." Said Blake.

Velvet smiled, almost bittersweetly and sighed deeply, her shoulders rising as a great, long breath of air filled her lungs to the brim. She let it go, slowly, the gas slowly deflating her expanded chest. "Well, I guess it all began about 3 years ago…" She began.

"And that's how I came to believe that Faunus and humans should live side by side, in harmony." She finished, stating the words proudly.

Blake went over the story she had just heard in her head, retracing the events. She retold herself all the facts, looked back over all the content, and committed the events to memory.

And then she sighed deeply, a tired sigh like someone going through the motions in a scene they were all too familiar with.

As Velvet had put it, A long time ago she was a poor Faunus orphan who had dreams of becoming a huntress. She had a 'personal friend', or at least that was the term she used. This personal friend had offered to train her. She had neglected to mention the name of the friend, or her relationship with them, other than that of teacher and student. All she would say regarding their identity is that they were an important person in her life, and that they were dead now.

Velvet had accepted the friend's offer and was trained from a young age by them. Again, this was all Blake could glean from the rabbit. She wouldn't tell Blake why this person had taught her, where they had learned it themselves, nothing.

She then went on to explain that earlier in life, her personal friend had some kind of connection to this General Ironwood character, whom Velvet claimed to be the headmaster of Atlas Academy. General ironwood owed this friend a favor for past deeds undefined. Before they had died, the friend used the Favor to get Velvet into the Atlas entrance exam without paying the fee. That fee was the major thing blocking most Faunus from attending. There wasn't any hard-fast rule that stated they couldn't attend; it was that the paywall was too high for these impoverished Faunus to climb over.

After her friend had cleared the obstacle for her, Velvet saw great success at the Atlas entrance exam, placing in the top ten percent. She was pleasantly pleased to find that once a Faunus got into Atlas Academy, they were treated just as well as humans, for the most part. Which is to say that they were treated like living trash.

General Ironwood, as described by Velvet, was 'not a racist', and, 'hated everyone equally.'

Not everyone over there was like that. There were certainly a few teachers and students who would go out of their way to show their depreciation for Velvet any time they could, but any time Ironwood saw that, or heard about it, he put a stop to it. "We can't afford to squabble amongst ourselves," he would say. "We have bigger enemies to worry about."

And he would work them all to the bone to prepare them for those enemies. The school was heavily connected to the Atlassian military, and their teaching methods reflected that. Still though, she was tortured just as much as anyone else. There were a few other Faunus students there, and they all also received the same treatment.

They were all maggots in Ironwood's camp.

But Velvet excelled in it. She was always at the top of the class. She excelled in every aspect she applied herself. Combat class, history, Grimm studies, she was one of the best and brightest students in all of them, so much so that she caught Ironwood's attention. During her second year, he presented her with an opportunity:

Go to different academies for a few months, record the way that Faunus are treated there, stop any exceedingly violent crimes should she see them happen, and come back to him with her findings in order to research how to improve Faunus lives.

Velvet had been ecstatic. This was the kind of thing she was looking for, a real way to make a difference. She readily accepted, and that was how she ended up here, at Beacon academy.

"So," Velvet squeaked out, a strange noise to hear from such a self-proclaimed high class Atlassian huntress.

Blake looked up, a flat, exhausted dullness to her eyes.

Velvet didn't seem to notice it. "Any questions?"

Blake had many. There were… so many things wrong with that explanation. Blake had thought, up to this point, that Velvet was a nice, intelligent young girl, with perhaps a kind of noble strength to her.

Now she saw that she was a liar, and a stupid one at that.

"No, I'm fine." Blake deadpanned.

If Velvet didn't want to be friends, she should have just said so. It would have hurt, but Blake wasn't some distraught schoolgirl, and to be honest she would have rather Velvet just come out and say the damn thing instead of trying to mock her with this fairy tale.

This was Atlas they were talking about. Did Velvet really expect Blake to buy that crap? There was simply no way that they would finance a project based upon improving the lives of Faunus, even if 'it was more Ironwood's project than Atlas's.' as Velvet had explained. It just simply didn't add up. Whether or not Blake was willing to accept the idea of the headmaster of Atlas being such a staunch supporter of the Faunus cause, which she wasn't, Atlas would never pour money into this. Money was the Atlassian lifeblood, it really was the foremost priority when it came to decision making. Either money, or military power. One of the two was always the primary motivator for that Kingdom.

Blake wanted to believe Velvet. She wanted to believe that things were better than they were, that people were better than they were, but facts were facts.

And if Velvet really didn't want to share anything with her, if she would rather create this story to mock her, then so be it. Blake could take a hint.

And to think that Blake had worried about what this girl thought of her. Really, how pathetic could she be?

"Well, see you around, I guess." Blake lied in turn to the Rabbit.

Blake heard some kind of statement of approval but ignored it and she walked towards the exit, that square hole in the attic floor, from which piercing sunlight pierced the veil of darkness suffusing the attic, never to return. She knew when she wasn't wanted. She knew when it was best to leave.

It was still a little sad, though. Blake had thought for a minute, just a minute, that she might have been able to find a real friend. Oh well. Blake had been alone for a long time, gotten used to it really. If anything, this would just be a return to peace, to the familiar.

To loneliness.

She began to descend the ladder, walking slowly, measuredly, familiarly. She kept her eyes trained on anything other than Velvet.

Blake was halfway down the ladder, when she heard first, a dinging of a scroll from hallway across the room, then not a moment later, a quiet gasp.

Her eyes were drawn against her will to the noise like moths to a flame. At its source, she saw that Velvet was staring at her scroll, her mouth agape and her eyes wide with surprise.

Blake looked on for a second at the scene, at the Rabbit's shocked expression. _What could be causing that, _she wondered.

_Not that she'd tell me. She's more likely to assert that her scroll has gained sentience and is trying to hold a conversation with her than actually divulge its contents. _

Blake then did something that she wasn't entirely sure why she did. Maybe it was her giving up on the whole situation, saying, 'oh, what the hell? What's the worst that could happen.' Maybe she was still holding out hope in her heart and wished to give it a chance. Maybe the logical part of Blake saw faults with her logic and was willing Blake to intervene, prove herself wrong.

Whatever the cause, Blake Belladonna asked something of the rabbit when the Scroll went off.

"Something up?" Blake asked, her eyes still locked on those wooden bars in front of her face.

"You bet it is!" Velvet confirmed ecstatically, her eyes glued to the screen.

Then, she was moving. She then rushed for her jacket and snatched it up like a stray cat and leapt in two graceful bounds towards the very same entrance Blake was idly occupying.

"Well come on, let's get a move on!" she urged, hovering over the entrance like a dog clawing at a front door.

Blake remained motionless on the ladder, stunned by the haste of the rabbit. "What's got you so riled up?" She queried.

Velvet seemed very open to discussion on the matter. Her eyes glowed with this wild, almost magical brilliance. "I just got a message from another student whose part of that project I was talking to you about. Ironwood just gave us each a big slice of money to buy research equipment."

Blake all of the sudden felt rather _frightened. _Velvet's wild eyes were now borderline crazy and twitched every few seconds. She grinned wildly, giggling and whispering unheard promises to herself as her lips curled up like a clown's. Her back was arched, leaning over like a hunchback, and her clawed, grasping hands shock wildly.

"Well come on, let's see how big the payoff was!" Velvet insisted, with all the intensity of a mouth-frothing addict.

Blake got the impression that she should move as soon as she could.

Instead of taking each step down the ladder, she just let go and dropped. Her trained feet hit the floor, and her hands braced her fall to absorb the force her feet did not.

Blake didn't get the chance to look up to see Velvet come down the ladder. Instead she heard it. She had barely registered her own presence upon the carpeted floor of Beacon and the energy of the fall was still coursing through her legs when she heard another thud a few feet in front of her.

By the time she looked up, Velvet was already looming above her, with far to pleasurable a grin decorating her face.

Blake almost didn't want to move. Some predators would just ignore you if you stood still.

"Come on, let's see how much he forked out!" Velvet suggested with perverse giddiness.

"Uhh, are you sure you want me to see your financial information? What if I like, I don't know, steal your identity or something?..." Blake mentioned flatly.

Velvet grabbed Blake's arm. "Oh, just come on, already."

Blake struggled against the Rabbit, twisting and turning in her grasp to try to break out of her hold. "Really Velvet, I get it, it's okay. You don't have to keep lying, I know you don't like me. I'll just leave you alone, okay."

Velvet gave Blake this confused look. "What are you talking about. Oh, never mind. Let's see how rich mama just got!"

And then Velvet dashed off, with a speed that could rival Ruby's.

Blake stood silently, observing the curious nature of the room around her.

She hadn't known quite what to expect upon entering Velvet's room, but she certainly wasn't expecting what stood before her.

Blake had thought for a moment that Velvet might possess fine art or some poetry, or perhaps a personal award framed on one wall, and a weight rack against the next. She just seemed like that kind of perfect person who never stopped working.

Instead, she was treated to the most stereotypically girly place she could imagine.

Now, Blake wasn't someone to judge someone on their style, not everyone could embrace the call of midnight drab and decorum like her, but this was honestly stunning to behold. The walls were drenched head to toe in that disgusting baby light pink, and as far as the eye could see there were stuffed animals. In one corner, instead of a desk to study and put her mind to work, there was an immaculate dollhouse that probably cost as much as Blake's scroll, opened with figurines pouring out of it. Big, gaudy white ribbons hung from each corner.

The girl's bed was huge, and pristine. It easily took up half the room. The blankets? Pink. The Pillows? Pink. The huge stuffed bear that was bigger than Velvet? Pink. They were all pink and trimmed with white. There were also probably enough pillows on the bed to craft an additional bed if she so chose.

The only thing that seemed out of place was Velvet's laptop, which sat on her lap as she furiously typed away. It shined with a silver plastic finish, standing out in the room like a sore thumb.

Thankfully, it seems Velvet had noticed this some time ago, and had adorned the pc with stickers of rainbows and unicorn's and the like.

Blake stood near the door, not so patiently waiting for Velvet to finish her task that for some reason she felt like dragging Blake along for, "I'm not trying to be rude, Velvet, but are you almost there?"

Blake was honestly being a little rude. It had only been five minutes. It's just that, well, she didn't want to hang around Velvet much longer.

Blake didn't know why the girl was going this far to mock her. Really, she could have just told her to shove off and Blake probably would have handled it better. Now, she felt like a hostage, held captive by Sebastian the unicorn and his pal Johnny the polar bear.

Still though, Blake would play along, mostly because there was this nagging thought in the back of her mind, telling her that she was right for thinking that it didn't make sense for someone to go this far just to humiliate her, at least not like this.

Could she be telling the truth? Blake was still ninety percent sure she was being lied to, but still ten percent was more than enough to sow enough doubt to prompt action.

"Almost there!" Velvet promised through a bit lip. "Just hold your horses."

"Well I'm sorry Velvet, I left all mine at home. Might I borrow one of yours in my hour of need?" Blake inquired sarcastically, pointing to the verifiable herd guarding her dollhouse like a troupe of knights.

Velvet didn't even spare her a look. "Very funny." She replied, all the while continuing to type as if her life depended on it.

With nothing left to do but wait, Blake's wandering eyes began to once again trace over the room, searching for something else, some new sensation to occupy her mind, but found nothing in this sea of pink and innocence. That is, until, she noticed one interesting detail…

"You live here alone?"

Velvet ceased her typing. Her hands hung over the keyboard, frozen in time. "Yeah." She admitted, her face hidden by her bangs.

Was this a touchy subject? Blake's curiosity got the better of her, urging her to question even if it seemed the wrong thing to do. "Do you have a team?"

Velvet was silent for a moment, the lack of the noise giving an eerie quality to the eyes of her numerous stuffed animals, which seemed to follow Blake no matter how many times she looked away.

"Yeah," she finally squeaked. "Though they're at Atlas or are also visiting another kingdom as part of the research project."

So, Velvet was here without a team? That made sense, given how no one was ever around her.

"So, you're here all alone?" Blake asked before she could bite her tongue. Even she knew some things were to brash to say.

Velvet at least wasn't outwardly offended. "Well, I guess technically that's true. But I call them all the time so it's still like we're together."

The words sent a cold chill deep into Blake's already frozen heart. Wait? Why was she feeling bad for this girl? She was mocking her, insulting her intelligence not but ten minutes ago, and is still to this very moment. She should be celebrating this offender's sadness.

But still, for some reason, it left a bitterness in Blake's heart, especially when she saw how the girl seemed to lean into the bear by her side a little more than she had been a moment ago.

Velvet then went back to her typing, frivolously entering keys as she attempted to do, well whatever it was she had to in order to locate this elusive sum of money that ironwood had apparently entrusted to her and the other researchers. Blake didn't know if she was telling the truth just yet. She was trying awfully hard to find what Blake could only assume to be a bank account or something similar. It couldn't have been harder than just inputting a username and password, yet here she was, taking nearly ten minutes to accomplish such a mundane task. Blake entertained the possibility that Velvet was designing an image or webpage or something similar to convince Blake that she was telling the truth when really, she was doing anything but. However, she quickly abandoned that outlandish hypothesis. Blake was skeptical, not paranoid, and she wouldn't entertain such impossible ideas without due evidence.

Still though, what was taking her so damn long!

Blake took measured, careful steps over to Velvet's side, wary of the ground she treaded in light of the somber energy that Velvet was currently projecting. She closed the distance, standing near her by the bedside.

Velvet didn't tell her to leave.

Blake then stood slightly behind Velvet, looking over her shoulders at the computer. It was displaying several different windows, all full of numbers, long, very, oh so very boring-looking documents, and several bright blue windows with mascots in the corner, as well as a multitude of search bars as well as icons.

In other words, it was a mess of a desktop that Blake couldn't even hope to unravel.

"Don't worry, it really is almost done." Blake heard Velvet's brown head of hair say from her position behind her.

Blake said nothing and continued to gaze at that mess of a computer screen as Velvet went about searching for her lost funds, lost in that sea of white boxes and flashing lights. The pit patter of Velvet's keystrokes filled Blake's mind as she patiently observed the process.

"… and done." Velvet finished with a satisfied sigh. She then gently nudged the laptop slightly to the left so that Blake would be able to see it better.

Blake's eyes scanned over the screen…

And her stomach went into her legs.

No. Stop. There is a logical explanation for this. "Velvet, I'm sorry, but I think there's a decimal error there. Still, that's a huge sum of money, and plenty of reason to celebrate."

Velvet looked up at her, a completely honest and calm expression on her face. "No, there isn't a decimal error."

"W-Well, surely then that means that…the bank messed something up! Surely there is no way a teenager would be trusted with such a gigantic sum of money!"

Velvet chuckled loudly, her laughs only furthering Blake's terror. "Yeah, they don't mess around."

"Y-You don't mean it's correct?" Blake stuttered.

"Yep." Velvet proudly announced, before her eyes went dark and a grim, corrupted aura oozed out of her that stood out starkly in such a light-hearted room.

"And it's all mine."

Blake felt as though she were about to faint. S-She knew people who would go their whole lives and not see that kind of money, and yet a child has access to it to do whatever suits her whimsy! The madness!

Velvet started laughing. Lightly, at first, a bemused chuckle escaping through her lips. In time, though, it grew. It became a full-fledged laugh in moments, Velvet looking up towards the sky as her pink, soft supple lips let out howls of hilarity. Then, it evolved even further, into a mad cackle, chilling the spins of all that would hear it as Velvet cried out her guffaws, piercing even the noblest of hearts!

Blake could fearfully back up in awe, as Velvet started rolling around on the bed, preaching between her howls, "AND IT'S MINE, IT'S ALL MINE! FINALLY."

Several minutes passed, and Velvet, for the most part, wined down. She was currently contently laying on her bed, sprawled out like a child, probably thinking about all the things she was going to buy now. Blake was still warily standing at the edge of the room, though it was probably safe to come out now.

"So, it's really real? You actually have that much money to spend?" Blake asked, prodding to see if the coast truly was clear.

Velvet's reached out towards the sky. "Yep," she confirmed, voice full of childish joy.

Blake was still in a state of disbelief. "B-but I've never seen that much. You could like, buy whole bodies off the black market with that kind of cash!"

Velvet sat up on her bed and looked at Blake, a playful look in her shimmering eyes "Why would I want to that? Plus, how do you even know how much a body would cost."

"…No reason."

Velvet looked curious, but thankfully, didn't press further.

Velvet raised her right hand and inspected it below the room's overhead light. "So, what do you think is the first thing I should buy?"

"… something research related, maybe? Isn't that why Ironwood gave it to you in the first place?"

Velvet shot up, fake offense all over her face. "Oh, how boring. I can see you're one of those strait-laced people who can never have any fun."

_E-Excuse me? "_Velvet, I can have as much fun as I want to, thank you very much." Blake stated proudly, despite her damn reddening checks.

Velvet then gave Blake a twisted, knowing look, her lips curving up in a cruel smile. "When was the last time you went out to do anything?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, I don't know," The Rabbit lied, and she damn well knew it. "I'm just _saying _that fun people might want to do more than just read books and watch tv all day."

Blake gasped slightly, a comeback failing to come to her.

"w-well hey, books can be fun!" she finally stammered out.

Velvet smirked evilly. "Indeed."

Blake backed up slightly "W-what? Really? They can!"

"I believe you."

Blake continued backing up. Was this girl just going to keep insulting her lifestyle? If that's the case, then Blake could find some other place to be.

"Ughh! I'm leaving!"

Blake stormed towards the door. She neared it and shot her hand out to throw open the door, then, as she fingers strangled the doorknob, a stray thought ran through her head.

Then it became an idea.

Then, it became a whole brainstorm.

She connected the dots, the fog of mystery unveiling the truth as Blake came to a series of revelations.

One: Velvet possessed a huge sum of money, more than any students other than Weiss or Pyrrha had any right to possess.

And two: Oobleck said that she was from Atlas, and he would know.

Both of these added up to bring Blake to a stunning, bone chilling conclusion.

There was more evidence that suggested that Velvet was what she said she was than evidence that suggested that she wasn't. It looked as though Velvet had been telling the truth, which means…

"Hey, Blake, you okay? You're just standing there?" The rabbit asked, genuine concern in her voice.

"I…" Blake started.

She began to turn back. She wanted to stay and talk, or at least she thought she did.

But instead she quietly said, "I'm fine," and walked out of the door.

The resounding footfalls of Blake's steps filled her head, the echoing and reoccurring beats creating a familiar melody as they bounced off the hallway's walls. Blake marched forward, no destination really in mind.

Her legs carried her in the same way they always had. The strain of the repeated steps cried out in her thighs like shooting daggers, begging Blake to give it a rest, but it was simply complaining too much. She hadn't slept right last night, so it wasn't as resilient as it usually was. It throbbed, and wailed, and even now Blake walked with a slight limp from the pain.

Still though, she soldiered on, moving through the pain, like she always did.

Though, now, there wasn't any path, any destination, any goal in mind. She simply walked, aimlessly. She was putting herself through this pain, aimlessly.

Her eyes traced the halls, scratching the sights into her brain. They wore the same white and crimson color palette that nearly all the halls in Beacon did. On one side, a simple white wooden bench sat unoccupied. Blake thought of taking a rest on it but decided not to. Once she stopped moving the real pain would set in.

On the other side of the hall was a water fountain, metallic and more then likely freezing in this October air. Even this deep into Beacon, the cold air found a way to creep back. It always did.

The idea still came as a shock to Blake. Velvet hadn't been lying. She was really participating in a project aimed at improving Faunus lives. There really were other people who wanted to do things a better way.

That realization should have come as a happy surprise to Blake, and for the most part, it did. She was glad that people were actually trying something constructive, instead of just succumbing to hate like the Fang.

But, for some reason, Blake couldn't help but feel… bitter.

She was damaged, heart and soul. There were so many scars that she didn't know if she would ever be the same. Time had worn her down, even broken her, and she was just starting to piece herself back together.

And now, people were about to make the same mistakes as she did.

The peaceful approach simply did not work. You might be able to convince some people, sway others, but the people who actually matter, the lawmakers, their minds would never change, and neither would society's as a whole as a result. People with power would never make any decision to remove or lessen that power, under any circumstances. And currently, the power of so many humans rested on the back of the cheap Faunus work force.

No amount of protesting, or boycotting, or civil disobedience would change that. It was a doomed voyage sailed by a ship of fools.

Blake had seen it all. She had been a part of every act of protest when she was younger, she truly thought that she was a warrior of justice, fighting for the equality and rights of her people, but in reality, she was just a little kid waving a stick hoping that it would make difference when it never would.

She should have been doing what normal kids did at her age. Get it trouble, play in the dirt, spend too much time watching tv, that kind of thing. But instead, she had sold her youth and innocence, trading it away so she could feel like a hero.

What a fool she had been. In that quest for justice, she had joined Adam and the rest of the fang in their downward spiral. She had… done things. Things she would never admit too, things that haunted her still. One day, she decided that this wasn't what she had set out to do, and that the fang had become warped, transformed…

Changed.

And she wouldn't abide it any longer. They had become the very thing they set out to stop, Racists who are so consumed by their feelings that they can't see the harm in the actions they perform. She left, and with nothing else to do, she went to Beacon, thinking that perhaps the life of a civil servant tasked with fighting monsters until they died might serve as a decent penance for Blake, a nice way to give back to the world that she could not deny that she had taken her fair share from.

And now, someone was coming along, thinking the same way that Blake did before, the way that caused her to get tangled up in this mess. It was abhorrent to behold, to see yourself from years before, just before you made those decisions that sliced your soul in two.

Even worse, was feeling envious of that person for their unfair hold on their happiness.

Velvet was still so… _okay. _She wasn't hurt, she wasn't broken, and Blake knew that it would come, it was inevitable, but it didn't make it any better to see someone whom, by all systems of logic, should have experienced some manner of suffering similar to Blake. But no, she had gotten off Scott Free. Blake knew that it was unfair that it was childish, but she couldn't help but feel jealous that this person was following in the path of the warrior of justice, and hadn't felt the knife of life stab her in the back, awakening her from her childish expectations yet.

Blake had tried to do things the right way. Look at what it got her. Why was this girl getting away with it? It wasn't, it wasn't…

_Fair. _

But really, Blake was just in her head, thinking uselessly like she did so often. If Velvet was still emotionally healthy, then good for her. Whether or not it would last, however, was a different story. Trying to fix the Faunus peacefully was, after all, a doomed voyage.

Blake had tried, her family and friends had tried, and the best that it accomplished was nothing. The worst was a red path that so many were walking right this very minute, led by her old friend Adam.

It may have taken longer for Velvet; one doomed voyage might take a different route then another.

But in the end, their destination is always the same.

Blake didn't know if it was worth talking to Velvet about this. Would she believe her? Another problem was admitting to her previous affiliation with the White Fang, and honestly, after confirming her allegiance to Atlas, that didn't seem like the best idea. While Velvet would have to be a fool to believe that Blake wasn't involved in some kind of dark past, you know, given the whole botched murder attempt, she still felt that admitting as much wasn't the smartest move.

But would Velvet be willing to listen? Would Blake be able to explain the uselessness of it all to her? Blake certainly knows that she would have summarily slapped anyone whom suggested that it was useless to fight against oppression as a child, no matter what they said. While Velvet was a full-grown woman, and probably older than Blake now that she thought about it, she still didn't know if that righteousness would be gone.

But… she would try. Blake owed it to the previous her to at least try to sway others before they went down the same road as her. The worst Velvet could do was say no, after all. And Blake didn't _necessarily _have to admit to being ex-fang.

Well, now that she was thinking about it, that would certainly make things more difficult, more awkward to explain, but she would figure out a way. She had to. She would help this person, if she could, from seeing the things that Blake had seen.

With that in mind, she set out, having spaced out and continued to walk aimlessly to who knows where. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, and she quickly plotted a course to the cafeteria, knowing that by now, breakfast would just be ending. It was the most likely place to find Velvet though, unless she had stayed in her room, which was still a possibility.

Blake's traveled through the familiar places, rounded the familiar corners, until she came face to face with those cheap, plastic lunchroom doors. She opened the way, expecting to find a loud mass of children munching and conversing frivolously.

Instead, she was greeted by silence, and welcomed by an empty dining hall.

Well, mostly empty. There was a janitor a way off sweeping the floor. He was an older man, with a wrinkled face, baseball cap, and a thick mustache. He wore ear plugs and was whistling a tune as he pushed the huge broom along the alleys formed in between the tables.

Blake ran up to the man. "Excuse me?" she asked as politely as she could.

But the man did not respond. Despite the fact that she was well within his range of vision, her presence was completely and utterly lost on him. That, or he was just ignoring her. Even as the cynic she was, she liked to believe it was the former.

"Hey!" she said a little louder while waving to the man.

Finally, he looked up, confusion and wonder sown onto his mature features.

He didn't say anything. Instead, he preferred to let his surprised eyes do the talking. He stared Blake down in question.

"Uhh…" Blake awkwardly fumbled. The only response to which was the Janitor continuing to look on, silently.

_Really, would it kill him to say something?_

"So… was breakfast canceled?" Blake finally asked.

It was the only explanation she could come up with. She certainly hadn't heard anything about it if it had.

"Breakfast over." The Janitor finally spoke, pointing to the clock over hanging the entire cafeteria by the north end.

The thought that breakfast was over was completely ridiculous. Blake had only been out for, what, thirty minutes? Breakfast wasn't going to start for another twenty when Blake had left the dorm room this morning. She was perfectly safe, with plenty of…

Blake's eyes scanned over the clock, that horrid foreteller of the universes oldest and greatest foe, time, and she felt an odd type on kinship with the universe.

For time was now telling both their dooms.

"9:22?!" Blake yelled equally at herself and the janitor, who only gave her an unsympathetic look and shrugged, before returning to his work, putting his headphones back in and resuming his sweeping.

Terror coursed through Blake's blood. How had she lost so much track of time?

No, all she had to do was calm down. She could handle this. It… it happens sometimes, and Blake would have to accept it.

Blake ran the time across her head and reasoned that first period was still active. She began to walk to the corresponding room, possible excuses already forming in her head.

Blake swallowed her throat and carefully opened the door to Port's lecture hall. Despite her light touch, the door shrieked as it moved, the hinge's cacophonous creaks quickly overpowering Port's legendary voice.

She awkwardly snaked in through the door, and her eyes confirmed that yes, the entire class including the professor was looking at her, because why not?

"Uhh, hi?" Blake awkwardly croaked, trying her best not to look at the sea of eyes.

"Ah. Miss Belladonna, I was wondering where you were." Port stated flatly.

The professor stood just in front of his desk, with his hands behind his back.

"Yeah… sorry. I was talking to a friend and I just lost tract of time."

She had reasoned that it would just be easier and better to tell the truth. There was no reason to concoct some elaborate excuse or hatch some plot. It probably wouldn't even be as convincing as a real reason anyway.

Port eye's, or perhaps they should be referred to as lines, lingered on her, as if contemplating her words. A light hmm escaped his lips.

Finally, he gave his verdict. "That's fine. I will still have to count you as absent, but you are more than welcome to stay for the rest of class." He offered.

It was a bit frustrating that it would count as an absence, but what could you do? Besides, it was more than likely was out of his power, and possibly illegal. Blake was just glad that the man resolved the ordeal quickly. He could have given her a whole interrogation up there in front of the class and demanded to know where she had been and what she had been doing.

"Thank you." Blake spat out as politely as she could to Port.

Then her legs were moving. She powerwalked to her chair, eager to get all these eyes off her. The air whished past her as she cut through the distance like a squirrel effortlessly climbing a tree. Once she found it, she became reacquainted with the feeling of dread accompanied by the cheap plastic of Beacon's chairs pushing against her.

"Now then, where were we?... Ah!" the professor quickly transitioned back into his lecture.

The fabled tales of Port was quickly labeled as unimportant information for Blake, the sound fading into the background and becoming white noise, similar to an always running tv or a fan, something that was there but not paid attention to.

She allowed herself a moment of relaxation, breathing heavily. Or, at least, she tried to relax. It was nearly impossible to find any kind of comfort in these chairs.

Pair that with the general annoyance that was, even while ignored, Port's lectures, and you had a truly dreadful experience that was more of a test of endurance then Combat class could ever be.

Something poked her in the side. She turned to see her partner, Yang looking at her purposefully.

"Yes?" Blake whispered.

Yang leaned back to reveal a very concerned Ruby, face low to the desk.

"Hey, Blake. You wanna, oh, I don't know, maybe tell your old pall Ruby where ya ran off too?" Ruby tried to whisper horribly, though no one had called her out on it yet, thankfully.

"Isn't that my business?" Blake instinctively whipped back to such a personal question and immediately regretted it.

An innocent hurt sprouted across Ruby's gentle features. "Yeah, I'm sorry. You're right, none of my business. Just… Forget I asked, okay."

Blake held her hands out in front of her. "No, It's fine. I shouldn't have reacted so harshly. What I told Port was right. I really was just talking to someone for longer than I thought."

Yang took this opportunity to jump into the conversation. A glow suggesting far too much enjoyment flickered in Yang's eyes. "Oh, Blake's got a boyfriend? Sneaking off before class for a little romp session? How scandalous. When do we get to meet the lucky guy?"

Ruby's face morphed with disgust. "Ugh, Yang, gross!"

Blake narrowed her eyes at her Partner. "There is no boyfriend, though I must say your time in the gym is paying off. You're jumping to further and further conclusions every day."

"Girlfriend then?" Yang asked hopingly, like a dog jumping up to its master asking for food.

"No! It was just a friend!" Blake insisted, her words coming out more defensive than she had intended.

"Mmm hmm…" Yang sounded sarcastically.

"Well, whenever you're ready to talk about him/her let me know, alright?"

"Sure. Whatever." Blake relented, more to stop this conversation then anything.

Her eyes drifted to Professor Port. The man looked like he was serenading the air, making verbal love to the atmosphere. He was singing his song of glory, and he was just as entranced as he believed all his listeners to be.

In truth, most of the people were focusing on anything but Port. With the exception of Pyrrha and Weiss, everyone else was either whispering to each other, messing with their scrolls, or napping. All the while, Port's senses were overwhelmed by flashing memories of his glory days. The man was so absorbed into his own story, he hardly noticed the things going on around him. Such were the circumstances that allowed most of team RWBY to have an entire conversation, even hidden with whispers, right in the middle of class.

"But Ruby…" Blake began, still worried that her younger leader might be upset.

She looked over, no detectable emotion on her face other than surprise.

"…I want you to know it really was an accident. I really did mean to come to breakfast."

"Blake," the young girl began sincerely. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm just worried about you. I just wanna make sure you're alright. I mean, for all we know, you could have been being kidnapped or attacked or something. Next time, just, oh I don't know, shoot us a text before you disappear like that, okay?"

Blake was surprised by the amount of apparent maturity in the younger girl. Though, Ozpin must have selected her for a reason. And while Blake didn't really appreciate the texting part and how it made her feel slightly tied down, maybe like she was being told what to do by her mother or something, she made herself swallow these feelings. _It's a perfectly valid request, _her logical mind told her as she tried to strangle the emotional part into submission. Though, like always, it would just never stay dead for long.

"Sure. No problem." Blake said to Ruby, noting the bright smile that adorned the younger girls features.

The rest of the class period passed in relative suffering, with Blake on more than one occasion asking herself if she should just walk out. After all, she had been marked absent for the day. The only thing that stopped her was the thought of the scene it might cause, as well as the justifications she would be asked to give to the rest of her team. Blake also tried to occupy her mind with anything other than Port's ego-gratifying lecture. She first attempted to count the number of tiles on the ceiling, but after she lost count for the second time, she gave up due to frustration. Next, she began to stare at the clock, hoping that if she just looked hard enough, she could discover another secret Semblance, one that would allow her to manipulate time.

Not that she could solve any kind of world conflicts, or even amass immeasurable wealth, no, Blake's mind was not bound by such base, kindergarten thoughts, no she would use time powers for their true purpose:

Speeding up this class so she could get out of here and out of range of Port's voice!

Eventually, the two-and-a-half-hour class and its agonies ended, the bell sounding like the soothing call of a lover's voice.

Blake dashed out of the classroom faster than Ruby did, which was saying something, given that the girl hated the class almost as much as Blake did.

After Port's class came lunch. The girls quickly made it to the cafeteria, the promise of food urging them on.

Yang burst through the door, unnecessarily kicking the door open. The rest of the girls followed suit, filtering in behind her.

"Alright!" Yang cheered.

"Let's get some grub!"

And then she was off towards the line, shoving several poor innocent strangers out of the way as Yang Xiao Long made her way towards her food.

"Ugh, she's such a beast sometimes!" Weiss commented, earing the ire of Ruby as the rest of them started walking like normal people to the line.

"Hey! Don't you talk about my sister like that!" She said in far too cute a voice to actually be intimidating.

Weiss put her hands on her hips. "Well if she wouldn't just come in like bulldozer knocking aside everything in it's path maybe I wouldn't have to!"

Ruby put on a very offended face, like a dog smelling another dog on its owner. "That's mean, Weiss."

"Maybe." She stated haughtily, "but it doesn't change the fact that it's the truth."

Blake was honestly getting tired of this. She'd already had enough drama today.

"Could you guys wait until I'm not around to start your bickering?" Blake shamelessly inquired.

"Quiet you." Weiss snapped at Blake.

A hiss of anger rose through Blake, willing her to bite back at her retort, but she silenced it. It just wasn't worth it.

Blake and the others fell in line, and Blake tried to do her best to filter out the noise, both of her teammates and of the very loud cafeteria. Yang, by virtue of her running ahead, was served before the rest of them and therefore managed to reserve a space for her and her team to sit at. After everyone else was served, Yang beckoned them over to her large empty tablespace in the bustling mess hall.

As they were making their way there, a sight caught Blake's eyes.

A lonely Velvet Scarlatina, avoided like the plague.

But that would only last so long. Soon, the bullies would return, consigning Velvet to a good forty-five minutes of torture, and Blake an equal amount of time of watching said torture. It was inevitable, as predictable as the rising of the sun. Any minute they would come, and there was nothing anyone could do about it, would do about it.

Velvet wasn't willing to stick up for herself, her beliefs were to set in stone, and no one was willing to help her. It was an unfixable situation.

Unless, that is, if someone decided to do something about it…

Blake took one last look at that lonely rabbit, destined to be abused and hurt. Already, in her eyes, despite all her stoicism during the act, she looked scarred. Even now, her fingers trembled. But she was strong, perhaps stronger than anyone here. She would put up with it, because it is what she thought was right.

She took one last look at that horrid, traumatizing sight, and decided that enough was enough.

She began walking forward, tired of her own inaction. She barely took the first step when she heard a voice call out from behind her.

"Blake?"

_Dammit why now?_

Blake turned around kindly. "Yes Ruby?"

"Aren't you gonna sit down? You weren't planning on eating standing up, were you?" Ruby tried to ask casually, though Blake could feel the urgency in the younger girl's voice.

After Ruby's inquiry, Blake became the automatic center of attention, with the whole of team Ruby's questioning gazes now focused on her.

"Uhh…" Blake stalled taking a single step backwards, not really sure how to answer her question.

Their eyes burned holes in Blake's body more intensely than any bullet ever could.

"I was actually planning on sitting somewhere else today…" Blake finally forced out.

Ruby's eyes displayed a flash of hurt. "But, we're you're team. Don't you want to sit with us?"

_Well no, not really, _Blake thought but didn't say, thankfully. Man, her brutal honesty could even shock herself sometimes.

"I'm just trying to broaden my horizons, make more friends. Isn't that what you guys always tell me, that I need to talk to people more?"

Really, why did Blake have to justify this? These people became full-fledged adults the moment they stepped foot in this school. Blake shouldn't have to explain where she sat at lunch like this was god damned fifth grade.

"Okay… Alright…" Ruby accepted, with a sad look on her face.

Though, given the nature of the situation, Blake really couldn't be bothered to care. Fifteen or not, Ruby was an adult now, and she needed to stop throwing a fit about Blake talking to other people instead of her.

She turned without saying another word and strode forward. Seeing another familiar face on the way there, she grabbed ahold of Henry Dumblis's arm and dragged him with her.

She resolutely sat down right across from Velvet, Henry more falling into a seat beside her.

Velvet regarded her with a curios eye under a raised eyebrow.

"Hello."

"Good afternoon." Blake greeted back.

Her eyes roamed over her for a moment, then over the elephant Faunus still trying to climb his way into his seat beside her, slipping and failing every attempt to gain traction on the tiled floor.

"So… this is?" Velvet asked, drawing the question out farther than necessary.

"Us sitting down. Eating lunch." Blake instantly answered back.

Velvet cocked her head to the side. "With me?"

"Yes. Is there something wrong with that."

"Oh no!" Velvet clarified while playing with her peas on her plate.

"It's just…" She trailed off.

"Hmm?" Blake questioned.

Velvet looked both of them in the eyes, critically examining them. Blake stared back, unafraid. Henry finally managed to pick himself and was smiling awkwardly at the two of them.

"Never mind."

A small uncharacteristic smile cracked abroad Blake's features, one side curling up, just barely. Velvet seemed to notice this and just shock her head and turned it towards her food.

Though Blake could see her smiling too.

"Wait, what's happening?" Henry spoke up for the first time. "And who are you people?"

**Greetings all, it is I, TheOreoLord.**

**So yeah, another serious chapter. It's also huge. More than 15000 words, and easily the biggest chapter I've written yet. I thought about splitting this up into two chapters, and it might have been fine, but I think that it packs more impact this way. We present a problem at the start, and we see Blake begin to tackle it by the end.**

**This is pretty integral to the story I want to tell, so these kind of plot heavy chapters are a necessity. Now, I'm beginning the first major arc in the story, where we deal with Blake and her quest against self. **

**Anyway, I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. **


	6. Chapter 6

Ruby Rose sighed between bites of her bad lunch. Seriously, would it really be that bad if they let them eat cookies for Breakfast, lunch, and dinner? The lunch workers had probably been listening to Weiss talk about things like, "proteins and vitamins," and were in cahoots with the white-haired girl to deny Ruby any and all tasty treats.

Still, that was only part of the cause for her bad mood. She was reminded of the main reason as her eyes drifted a few inches upwards. They zeroed in on the true culprit that sat several tables away from Ruby. The young leader propped her elbow up on the blue lunch table and rested her head against her hands. Another defeated groan left her lips.

"Alright. You've been acting like Zwei peed on your cloak for the last ten minutes. What gives?" Yang questioned from beside her.

Ruby turned to her sister, who was looking down at Ruby, concern and worry etched onto her face. Ruby wondered if telling her would be a good idea. She didn't want to, as her Dad would say, "Stir the pot."

That line of thinking lasted about two seconds. It was almost always a bad idea for Ruby to try to hide things from Yang.

"It's Blake." Ruby admitted, turning to her food to absentmindedly play with it, noting the way the peas always brushed off the fork instead of being pushed. 

"Oh?" Yang curiously sounded from above her.

"She just… never hangs out with us anymore. And, that would be fine, if she actually looked like she was, well, you know, happy."

"To be fair, when has Blake ever looked happy?" Yang shamelessly pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but like, look at her! You can tell she's faking that smile from a mile away!" Ruby argued, moving her head in a jerk like motion in the direction of said black-haired girl.

Yang looked over to the table where Blake sat. For a moment, she said nothing as her eyes remained locked on the scene before her.

And then she just shrugged her shoulders, sighing loudly. "Hey, we've never even been able to get a fake one out of her so they must be doing something right."

She then picked up her fork and began eating again.

But Ruby was having none of that.

She turned towards Yang, trying to look the girl in the eyes, but instead only viewed the blonde hair covering the side of her head. "Yang, she looks exhausted. Look at her," Ruby exclaimed waving a hand in their teammate's general direction. "You can tell she really isn't enjoying herself!"

Yang didn't look up from her plate, and flatly intoned, "Well, she's eating. She's smiling. She's laughing. She seems fine. What's the big deal?"

The big deal? Ruby thought her Sister would instantly get it. She had always been more socially intuitive then Ruby. She was the one who always helped her out with things like this.

Ruby turned her body in the seat and aimed it towards her sister. "Yang, she might be trying to make it _look _like she's happy, but even I can tell that she's lying. She's got black bags underneath her bloodshot eyes. She never pays attention in class. We barely talk to her anymore, and that smile is so forced. She isn't really happy; she's just pretending to be."

"Well Ruby…" Yang began in an explanation tone, that reminded Ruby too much of her father, "Sometimes we can't be happy all the time. Sometimes we really do have to fake it for the people we care about."

"But that's just it!" Ruby quickly asserted.

Yang turned to Ruby with eyes narrowed in curiosity.

Ruby put both her hands on the table. "Blake doesn't care enough, about anybody, to fake being happy. She'd rather just shove her head in some book or in her scroll and ignore people until they left her alone!"

Yang eyes flew to the corner of her vision, and Ruby noted the blonde's hands flexing into closed fists.

"She's acting completely out of character. She hangs out with Velvet and Henry all day, from when she wakes up at eight in the morning, to when she comes back to the dorm at eleven. And once she does come back to the dorm, does she kick back, relax, tell people to buzz off? No! instead, she asks us what we need done around the room, and no matter what we say, she does it. For at least an hour, every night, she starts acting like our personal butler, doing whatever she can think of to help us out."

Yang's face looked torn with conflict. "Well…"

Ruby didn't let her finish. "Then, she falls asleep with her head in a book. I had to cover her up in the middle of the night two days ago, Yang. She fell asleep without even getting under her blanket. Does that sound like Blake to you?"

Yang breathed deep, her broad shoulders rising with the influx. "No, not really…"

"No, it doesn't. That's why I'm so grumpy. My sarcastic, moody and antisocial teammate is all of the sudden trying to act like wonder woman and I don't like it. I think that something is wrong with her, but every time I ask, she just brushes me off and says she is fine. I want to help, but she won't tell me what's wrong…"

Ruby felt like she wanted to cry. Why did this have to be so hard? She just wanted a happy team. She didn't care if they were happy with other people. She just wanted them to be okay…

It was then that a familiar weight settled atop her head, making her eyes go wide. She looked up at her sister. "Yang…"

Her sister was smiling down at her as her hand ruffled Ruby's hair. "You're too nice for your own good, you know that?"

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean, Yang?"

Yang retracted her arm, letting it return to her side, and cocked her head slightly. "It means that you can't fix everything, no matter how hard you try."

Ruby heard her sister's statement and immediately her whole being rebelled against the idea. "But Blake's my friend, my teammate. I should at least try to help her if she has a problem." Ruby pleaded, hands held out wide.

"People have to want to be fixed, Ruby. I'm not saying that you're wrong about Blake, I'm saying there isn't much you can do. Blake has to fix Blake by herself, or, at the very least, ask for help from other people." Yang explained.

Ruby wanted to say something, to refute her sister's statement, but she couldn't. She knew Yang was right.

Such thoughts were stopped as the rush of the cafeteria filled Ruby's ears. The incessant chatter, the multitude of steps. The light that poured in from the huge window rudely blasted any kind of fatigue Ruby even thought about having from her mind.

The sound of Weiss's heels alerted Ruby to her presence long before the sight of the girl. She sat in a prim and proper way that just screamed that it had been hammered in with hours of practice, ankles crossed and back straight. She swung her head, throwing her ponytail over the side before her icy blue eyes scanned the two of them.

"What's wrong with you too?" She asked accusingly.

Ruby had learned over the course of these weeks that even when she was being nice, Weiss always seemed to sound a little mad, and more than a little judgmental. Ruby just tried to not think about it too much.

"Ruby's trying to hatch a plan to rescue Blake from the bunny girl." Yang readily shared with far too much satisfaction, casually munching on an apple.

"Ah." Weiss nodded and seemed to instantly understand. Having been satisfied, she went about preparing her lunch. Any time Weiss ate, she had to spend at least five minutes doctoring the food first.

"S-So what if I am?" Ruby hastily defended, rapidly looking back and forth between the two. She tried to ignore the growing heat in her cheeks.

The other two started laughing amongst themselves. Ruby started growling in response. This wasn't even close to being funny!

"Your friend is in danger! How can you not be more upset by this?"

"Well, Ruby," Yang began, trying to get her breathing under control. "It's like I said. It's not that we don't care, it's that it's out of our hands. I know that you might have some trouble understanding that now but trust me. The only way that this problem is gonna get fixed is if Blake wants it to be fixed."

"She's right, Ruby." Weiss interjected as she finished cutting up her breaded chicken into nice bite sized pieces.

She then speared one such piece with her fork and pointed the utensil at Ruby.

"You can't fix all the world's problems." She imparted with a slight turn of her head.

Weiss then went to finishing her meal, focusing as she consumed them in the politest, most time-consuming and boring way possible.

Ruby wanted to argue, she wanted to make them see her point of view, but she wasn't sure what else she could say. At that moment, she felt a hand on her back, gently rubbing back and forth.

Already knowing who's it was, she turned to her sister.

With warm eyes, the older girl promised, "Hey. Don't worry. She'll come around eventually."

Ruby enjoyed the way her sister's hand felt rubbing her back. It reminded her of home. As the pressure increased on her muscles, she thought of her friend, of the troubles she was forcing on herself.

"I hope so…" Ruby admitted, looking at Blake as she stared off into space when she thought that no one was looking.

For the first time in a long time, Blake actually felt like she could look at herself in the mirror.

It was so needed. It had been so long since Blake had done something undeniably _good, _something that she could be proud of.She had started to forget what it was like. And she didn't have to convince herself that these were good deeds. She didn't have to weigh the pros and cons, ask herself if the ends justified the means.

It wasn't complicated, it wasn't controversial.

She was just doing her part, trying to fix the problems she could, like everybody should.

And Blake really hadn't ever felt better, or at least not in a long time. In the early days of the fang, when they used more peaceful tactics, Blake could remember sensations similar to these. She always felt like such a _good person_ when she was at those rallies, but even more than that, she felt like she was being true to herself, especially in comparison to others. She felt stronger, more willing, and more honorable than other people she passed on the streets. She was so happy, and young, thinking that just because she stuck up for her ideals that she was a better person than others.

Its almost laughable to think about now, Blake having called herself 'honorable' before.

But Blake had worried and hid for too long. She had felt sorry for herself for too long. Now was the time for action.

Blake had a simple theory. If she, or anyone for that matter, was around Velvet and Henry, then Cardin would be unlikely to attack. By simply staying near them throughout the day, she would protect them from harm. She didn't have to risk people uncovering her past, unless people thought that simply because she hung out around Faunus that she was one, which, admittedly could happen, but it would just be a groundless rumor at that point, so Blake wasn't too worried.

Cardin preyed on, among other things, Velvet's and Henry's isolation. There wasn't anyone who would get mad or retaliate if they were bullied. They were always alone at lunch, and everywhere else for that matter, and that made them easy target. If they weren't going to defend themselves, and no one else was, then Cardin could attack with impunity.

That's where Blake came in. She would hang around the two of them, talk to them like friends do, be there so that they weren't alone. She reasoned Cardin wouldn't want to attack if his victims were part of a group. It made things much harder and more complicated. It was the same tactic that people walking in groups late at night used. By sticking together, they would stay safe.

And so far, it had been working. There hadn't been an incident since Blake began her endeavor. There had been a few occasions where Blake had seen Cardin shoot a glare their way, but she utterly ignored his gaze, and Cardin eventually walked away.

Blake was filled with joy, with pride. She was protecting her people, and she wasn't hurting anyone to do it. She had found a silver bullet, at least for the situation involving Velvet and Cardin. There were, of course, other cases of Faunus bullying on campus, but Blake would figure out something for those in due time. Right now, she would focus on these two.

Blake thought of these people as her friends. Whether or not Blake protecting them was a motive for founding that friendship played no role in her mind. She wasn't tricking them or lying to them. They were her friends, no matter the cause for their newfound companionship.

Or, at least, one of them was.

No, that was rude. Blake shouldn't think like that. It's just that Blake could see why Henry's team ignored him…

The boy was, well, to put it lightly…

More annoying than a train blaring at six am on a Sunday.

"Hey- Hey Blake…" Henry sniggered from Blake's side, hurling Blake out of her daydreams like a lifeguard surfacing a drowning swimmer.

She was awoken to the sight of the steady stream of passing hallway moving about her vision. Her ears were greeted by the footfalls of other students. In her peripheral vision, she registered the sight of Velvet on one side, stoic and focused, and on the other, Henry, who was walking with a slight wobble and had his eyes stuck in his scroll.

Never mind the fact that he was smiling stupidly.

Blake sighed. Readying her smile, she turned towards the boy. "Yes Henry?"

The boy practically shoved his scroll in Blake's face. "Look at this new item that just dropped for me. It's a super rare ore that makes dark-steel weapons."

"That's great, Henry," Blake gently pushed the device back to him. She wanted to let the boy down easily. She just wasn't as into that game as he was.

But he did not, and more than likely would not, ever, get that.

"Dark-steel weapons are like, the best in the game. You need them if you want to take down the crystal behemoths in the storm levels, and you have to play on the storm levels. If you don't, then good luck getting actual loot drops. Hey, did you know some guy did actual calculations on Non-storm level loot drops? One mythic every SEVEN HOURS! SEVEN HOURS! What kind of time do the devs think people have, sheesh?-"

Blake gently placed her hand in front of the portly boy's stomach, stopping him both from walking into a stationary bench.

"Huh?" he looked over curiously.

Blake realized that this was her chance. She had his attention, and with how short the span of it could be, Blake had to act now. She breathed deep, wondering how she should go about this. She didn't want to hurt the boy's feelings, after all.

"Alright, Henry, you see…" and he just had to look at her with those confused, guilty eyes. _Stay Strong, Blake._

"… You see, I just, I'm not as interested as you are in that game. It's fine to talk about it now and then, but if you go right off the deep end without at least explaining to me what these things mean, I'm not going to be able to keep up."

There. She said it. And she even put it in a way that would let him down easy AND keep the opportunity for conversation open. Knowing Henry, this game might honestly be the only thing he could talk about, and Blake didn't want to alienate him.

Though, she realized with a grim thought, she might come to regret that decision.

_No. It's fine, _she told herself. She would help him get through this. Maybe she would teach the boy to talk about things other than the game too.

Henry looked down, his form sagging. "Yeah… I'm sorry."

Blake felt guilt throb through her weak, used up heart. But she reminded herself to stay strong. These were necessary growing pains.

Henry looked up, forcing a smile despite the guilt still plaguing his eyes. He pointed to Blake with finger guns. "Hey, maybe you could try the game out some time. I think you'll really like it."

Because why wouldn't Henry take that opportunity to talk about something non-game related?

"Oh, no. Thank you, but no thank you." Blake quickly nipped that idea in the butt.

It wasn't that she didn't like games… It was that she liked a _very specific _type of game. Really, she might have enjoyed more if her limited free time allowed for such pursuits.

Blake's mind flashbacked to a memory of a voluptuous redhead who twirled her hair and wore a maid outfit on a small screen

_You know, you're pretty cute, Nya. _

Blake's heart skipped a beat, and to her horror her breath came out in shallow pants.

_Y-Yeah? Thanks… I just moved into town. I… kinda don't know anyone here, so thanks for being nice to me, _the game's protagonist said.

The maid shoved both her hands on the table and leaned forward, revealing far too much skin. She looked purposefully into the protagonist's eyes.

_Mew doesn't know any one here? That's horrible. Well, I refuse to let that stand. Mew will come to my house tonight and meet all my friends._

The protagonist shuffled awkwardly and backed up from this scary-yet cute maid girl staring at him with a deadly serious look in her eyes.

_Thanks, but I really don't know. I just got here, I'm still settling in, you know the drill, right? _

The maid narrowed her eyes.

_Did I look like I was asking, Meowster? _

_Ughh… Someone help me, _the protagonist said to himself.

"Uh, hey, Blake, you okay? You're kinda spacing out," the calm voice of Henry asked, shattering the memories that Blake was having such a fine time enjoying.

Blake had to resist the urge to jump back, but she could not stop the violent twitch that shot through her being. _They must never know, _she promised herself silently, and began trying to act as natural as possible.

"Yep, never better!" Blake quickly assured. She smiled brightly through her teeth, trying to convince Henry that she wasn't just thinking about perhaps the most heinous crime she had ever committed:

Being addicted to dating sims.

Henry, for his part, didn't look convinced, but asked not further questions, much to Blake's relief.

Velvet, who had been quiet up until this point, saw fit to interject her opinion into the mix. "You know…" she began, not looking back as she strode forward gracefully.

Both Henry and Blake silently waited for the Rabbit to finish her sentence.

"… I didn't know they let scrubs into Beacon. You need to go to Storm level two for the real game."

No sooner did Henry hear her words then his disposition brightened like the first sunrise of spring. He jumped to the bunny girls' side as the two of them entered their own little world. Yes, Henry had recruited Velvet some time ago. Now, the two of them were obsessed with this game, and Blake was often left on the sidelines as the two of them talked all day about their virtual exploits.

It wasn't as bad with Velvet, the girl had interests outside of the game, and with her studies as well as Ironwood's mission, she found it hard to play as much as she wanted too. Despite that, she still had managed to reach a progression level that rivaled Henry's. Was it that she excelled at everything she did? Was she using her extreme wealth to buy her way through the game? Blake couldn't know. Whatever the case, the game had become something that their group could always talk about confidently, an ease topic to broach for everyone.

Everyone except Blake.

She didn't know why this was bothering her so much. She was an ex terrorist for crying out loud, and she was training to fight monsters for a living. She had moved far beyond such schoolyard concerns like not being able to talk to her group of friends as much as she wanted to.

The two of them giggled and were hunched over Henry's scroll. Blake had no idea how they could even walk like that. Still, they didn't run into a single soul, and moved about the hall as well as anyone, albeit a bit slower.

Blake sighed, moving along the hall as her friends got deeper and deeper into some conversation about the 'Raid of legacies,' and how they would have to 'grind their characters' or something like that. Blake stood at the sidelines and moved with the group towards their next class.

Maybe… Maybe Blake would try this thing out, see what all the fuss was about. Even if she just spent like an hour with it and never touched the game again, she reasoned she would be much more knowledgeable about it then she was now.

Blake pulled her scroll from her pocket and opened the game store program. "Hey, what was that game called again?"

After ensuring that Velvet and Henry would be okay for the night and walking back to the dorm, Blake carefully cracked open the door, mindful of the people who might already be sleeping inside.

She winced as the hinges screeched when the door opened. She only opened it partially and slid through the crack in order to avoid any more noise. Turning around, she carefully shut the door.

Turning back, Blake saw that the room was entrenched in darkness, and blanketed by quiet. Not that she couldn't see in the dark due to her Faunus heritage, but she did recognize it was there, and If she listened closely, she could hear the faintest sounds of breathing.

Which meant that the others had already gone to sleep. It made sense, it was already eleven twenty-five in the evening, and classes started early. Not early enough that Blake couldn't do her part around the dorm though.

Blake silently stepped towards the small whiteboard, where all kinds of information team RWBY wanted to share with one another was scribbled with a dry erase marker. Among them was the team's chores. Usually, a name was written beside a task, denoting who it belonged too, but lately Blake had been plowing through her chores and everyone else's to the point that no one bothered to even put a name down anymore, since she would end up doing it regardless.

Upon inspecting the board, Blake was surprised to find that there were no chores. Where the tasks were normally listed, there was only a blank white space that seemed out of place, foreign to the board. The only things left on it were the doodles in the corner that Ruby kept drawing no matter how many times Weiss yelled at her for it, the grocery list, and reminders for upcoming homework assignments.

Even on days where nothing had happened in the dorm, Weiss would at want the place vacuumed and the trash taken out. Not that Blake would even consider vacuuming while her teammates slept, but still, Weiss normally had at the very least one or two chores on the list, but not now.

Had they finished them all before Blake got back? They had certainly never done that before. No matter how Weiss demanded it, no matter what she said, there were always a few shirked duties. Shirked duties that Blake could pick up, take care off.

Blake wanted to help them. She spent all day with other people, and she wanted to show them she didn't do that because she hated them, or that she wanted to avoid them.

Helping team RWBY clean up, taking care of the things that no one else wanted to do, it was Blake's way of showing them she still cared. It also helped that if she did that, then she wouldn't have to deal with a furious Weiss sitting the whole team down to have a talk about, "common courtesy," and "cleaning up after oneself."

Blake needed to refocus on trying to get Ruby and Weiss together. The princess seriously needed to loosen up. Blake had been so busy lately that she hadn't even thought about it, but she would put it on her list of things to do. For now, she wanted to make sure there wasn't something that they simply forgot to put on the list even though it needed to be done.

Her feet moved in a flurry. She went to the kitchen and checked the sink. It was sparking, and void of any dish. Next, she checked the trash can, which was filled with nothing but a fresh bag and still, slightly sour-smelling air.

The bedside tables, clear. The kitchen counter, smooth and uncluttered. The glass, clear in a way that suggested a recent wipe down. There wasn't a single piece of trash polluting the room, no matter how thoroughly Blake checked. The room was spotless. Even now, a welcoming fragrance filled Blake's nose letting her know that they had sprayed some air freshener before they had gone to bed.

But why would they do all this? Blake wanted to help them, she wanted to clean up, do something for the team. She was busy keeping watch over Velvet and Henry all day. Shecouldn't be a normal member of the team, so this was how she made up for it.

Blake ran her fingers through her hair. There had to be something else she could do. Their homework? No, that was stupid. Weiss would flay both Blake and the person who had accepted the offer alive for cheating.

But Blake couldn't think of any other solution. Frustrating as it was, there really weren't any options in this situation. She would just have to make it up to them tomorrow or something. She reluctantly stopped scanning the room for the slightest imperfection and climbed into bed, noting the smoothness of the sheets as well as the sweet smell wafting off them.

_Did they wash these?_ Blake asked herself. It seemed undeniable from the fresh scent.

She'd have to ask them politely not to do that in the future. As nice a gesture as it was, Blake couldn't help but feel like her privacy had been invaded a bit. Even though they were just sheets, a bed was a sacred place for some people.

Putting that thought to the side for now, Blake settled in and pulled out her scroll to make some progress in her book before she went to bed. She might be able to get past her routine five pages since there wouldn't be any cleaning tonight. The page flared to life in her hands, and Blake began to scan the words. All the while, in the back of her mind, she thought of Velvet and Henry, and the silver bullet, how she was making a difference, changing things in her own small way.

And for now, Blake could be okay with that.

Birds chirped, sunlight flooded in through the windows, and Ruby Rose awoke to what truly could be called a beautiful morning. The air outside her bed was warm and she could freely remove her covers without fear of bringing in the cold. She sat up in her bed and stretched, yawning freely as she did so. Bones cracked into place as her arms straightened above her head, and Ruby thought about what the first thing she would need to do to start her wonderful day was.

Brushing her teeth seemed like a good start, lest her diet of cookies, cookies, and more cookies catch up with her and give her cavities. With this in mind, Ruby casually leapt from her bed with huntress-like grace. After landing, she was introduced to a rather strange sight…

"Blake… What are you doing?"

"Hmm?" the black-haired girl answered, pulling her headphones out as she turned to look at Ruby, a totally neutral expression on her face.

"Oh, good morning. I was just cleaning out the fridge. But don't mind me, I'm almost done."

She was… cleaning the fridge? "Why?" Ruby questioned, stepping further towards the kitchen.

Blake turned back towards the cold appliance, putting her headphones back in. Ruby heard the muffled sounds of music through the buds. Blake then dipped what Ruby could only assume to be a sponge into a large jar of murky yet bubbly grey water that sat beside her, accompanied by various grocery items as well as the fridge's removable shelving. She wrung the sponge out several times, then brought it into the fridge and began scrubbing in long strokes.

Blake shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted to, I guess."

Ruby entered the kitchen, and her eyes laid witness to Blake's impressive work. "Blake… This thing is like, whiter than it was when we got here. How long have you been doing this?"

"That depends. What time is it?" Blake asked without removing her head from the fridge.

After reaching for the pocket that usually housed her scroll and instead finding the comfy silk fabric of her pocketless pajamas, Ruby scanned the walls, searching for some kind of clock within the room. They had to have one, right?

But there was no such thing. grumbling, Ruby climbed back into her bed to search for her scroll. After lifting her pillow, she saw the tell-tale sign of metallic silver.

"It's almost eight, Blake." Ruby revealed after a quick look at the device.

Blake emerged from the cold confines of the fridge and adopted a contemplative look. "Oh. Then I guess I've been doing this for… about forty-five minutes."

Ruby's eyes went wide. "Forty-five minutes?"

Blake nodded. "Give or take."

Then she retreated and continued her work.

Ruby leapt back down to the floor and walked back to the kitchen and stood just behind Blake, watching the way she kept going _back and forth _with the sponge. She could see the flexing of her muscles, as well as how filthy her shirt was now. Despite spending the better part of the last hour inside a fridge, her face was red with sweat, and her hair was disheveled in some places, and wet in others, with bits of food tangled in it here and there.

The worst part of it all was that her eyes., though red and irritated from the chemicals of the cleaning supplies and temperature of the fridge, were calm and flat, like this was a perfectly normal thing to do.

Ruby wanted to reach out and touch the girl. "You know, you don't have to do this Blake. The fridge wasn't even that bad… And I think it's fine now, why don't you stop, take a shower or something…."

Blake made a loud sigh as she literally inserted most of her upper body into the fridge, no doubt trying to reach a difficult place. "Don't worry about it."

"But… Blake…"

"Hey, it's not that big of a deal. Besides, I'm almost done." Blake answered diplomatically from inside the fridge, her voice muffled by it's walls.

Ruby wanted to say more, she wanted to help Blake, but she didn't know what she could tell her that would make her stop doing this to herself. Whatever Ruby said, Blake would just argue, and claim to be okay when it was obvious she was anything but. The fridge really wasn't even that bad! Weiss, the mother of all perfectionists, hadn't complained about it yet. Sure, it had a few stains here and there, but every fridge did! Blake didn't have to go and do this.

_So _whydid she keep making herself do these things?

Just as Ruby was thinking that, Yang came tumbling out of bed without so much as a grunt. A few seconds later, and she managed to drag herself up, using Blake's bed for leverage. She stood hunched, and weak, and it seemed the lightest wind would knock her over. Heck, Blake looked better than Yang right now, and that was saying something. All life and color was void from the girl. Her normally vibrant and bright hair was dull like yarn or dead yellow grass instead of its usual gold hue. She brought up a hand to stifle a yawn, and Ruby was exposed to a generous amount of escaping side-boob from the girls old and tattered tank top with some band logo on it that she normally slept in.

"Morning," She yawned with all the passion and excitement of Uncle Qrow.

"Ugh, gross Yang. Put on some clothes. You know I don't wanna see that." Ruby said, turning away and holding up a hand to block the sight of her more-than half naked sister.

Truth be told Ruby didn't actually care. Yang walked around in a limited state of dress all the time at home. Ruby was just worried about what the others would think, and as team leader, she had to make the right decision for everyone.

"Huh?" Yang asked, a dull, almost dead look in her eyes.

She then dumbly looked down. "Oh. Yeah. Guess I'll get changed."

Yang then dragged her feet towards the dresser like a zombie aimlessly carrying it's decaying corpse forward, opening it in an action that took a full three minutes. "You know, I thought that you would be used to me waking up like this." She yawned.

"Just cause I'm used to something doesn't mean I wanna see it!" Ruby berated, feeling slightly bad. The team had more than enough griping with Weiss.

Yang, who was teetering like she might fall over any moment managed to articulate, "Sure, whatever, just gimme a few minutes."

She then wobbled back to the bathroom with some clothes under her arm. A second later Ruby heard the tell-tale sound of running water.

From behind her, strange sounds prompted Ruby's interest, causing her to turn around.

Blake had apparently brought the fridge up to her standards, and was now putting the shelves and food back in. Ruby moved to the scene and knelt next to Blake by the opening to the fridge.

"Here." She asked Blake. "Let me help."

Blake, very quickly Ruby might add, smiled kindly. "No, really, it's not necessary. Thank you for the offer though."

Then she went back to reassembling the fridge, her body movements preventing Ruby from reaching for any of the shelves or food items.

Ruby leaned in closer, trying to look her teammate in the eyes, but was met with the never-ending mass of black, dirty hair. "Blake I can help you. Come on, you cleaned this whole fridge, the least I can do is put the stuff back, right? You shouldn't have to do all this!"

"Thank you, but it's fine. Besides." She stated, while rising from her knelt position.

She then smiled at Ruby, motioning towards the open, immaculate fridge, with all its contents put back in their regular place. "It's done."

Ruby stood up and said nothing for a moment, trying to find the words as she looked down at the scrubbed and organized kitchen appliance before her that was not really dirty by anyone's standards to begin with.

Ruby began playing with her thumbs. "… You know you didn't have to do that, right?"

Blake turned to her, a slightly confused look on her face that was soon overcome by a happy grin.

"Don't worry about it."

_But I do worry, _Ruby wanted to say.

…_I worry about you…_

"Well," Blake sighed. "I guess I'll try to start getting ready."

She then walked over towards her dresser and began rummaging through its drawers.

"Oh, hey." She called out.

"Hmm?" Ruby answered back, stepping slowly back into the main living area.

"Let me know after you get out of the shower. You are the only one who won't have gone after Yang finishes, right?"

Ruby blinked, slightly stunned by the question. "I guess?" She offered once she wrapped her mind around the question.

Ruby looked at Weiss's bed and found no sleeping princess. Ruby couldn't help the initial relief she thought at that, but soon a flash of disgust ignited within Ruby for it. That was no way to treat a teammate, whether it was just a thought or not!

Still, the fact remained that there was no heiress to be found. Had she left early? It certainly didn't seem like Weiss. Ruby would have to send her a message in a minute.

"Well, Weiss isn't here, so I can't really speak for her, but if Yang's in there now, then yeah, if you haven't showered yet then it would be you and me."

"Alright." Blake confirmed, head still turned away from Ruby as she dug through her clothes. "I'll let you go, then I'll go after that."

_Really? With you looking like… That? _Ruby thought, quickly eying Blake's grimy appearance. And why did it even matter. I mean, sure, it'd be nice to go first, but Blake certainly appeared to have the greater need. Why would she try to make Ruby go first? Is this like how she kept cleaning crazily around the dorm room? Could she now not shower before anybody else? Well, Ruby wouldn't let her teammate think such thoughts!

"Hey, why don't you go first?" Ruby asked sweetly, teetering back and forth on her toes.

"Cause uhh," and then Ruby, with all the grace of a young, budding huntress in training, snorted loudly. "You kinnndaa need it."

Blake thankfully took the painful insult in stride. "Oh, this?" she asked, motioning towards the stains and dampness of her dress.

"Don't worry about it. You get washed up. I'll use whatever's left."

She then slammed shut the dresser, the loud crash causing Ruby to jump slightly. With a purposeful look in her eyes she walked into the kitchen and rather ferociously opened the various cupboards.

She danced around the room, quickly obtaining various tools for breakfast. Her eyes burned with focus, and her muscles twitched with effort. Ruby really didn't know how she did it, but she made a simple act like making toast look like a task comparable in fighting Grimm.

And much like Blake could quickly finish off a pack of Beowolves, as Ruby had seen in training, she made a piece of toast in record time. She yanked the toaster from its resting place and slammed the plug into the outlet. Lunging forward, she grasped a loaf of bread, then placed slice into the appliance's rusty mouth and started the toast. Then, she paced, impatiently. Her legs pounded against the floor as she moved with an almost insane focus in her eyes. Once it dinged, she was on it in a second. She picked up the hot bread with her bare hands and set in on a plate, then with a metallic scrape, she put the toaster back where it belonged.

Her movements felt so… angry, and just watching her made Ruby feel scared.

The whole ordeal took less than two minutes, including the time it took for the toast to cook. And the kitchen looked just the same as it did before she started, with no evidence of her cooking anywhere.

She swallowed the bread whole, then stole back into the living room, her pace creating a whish of air as she passed Ruby, who was still slightly dumbstruck at the whole scene.

Ruby turned around, slowly. She saw Blake hunched over her backpack as she furiously searched it for something.

"Blake… Are you okay?" Ruby asked apprehensively.

Blake immediately turned from the bag towards Ruby, though she continued to feel around it's insides as she spoke. Her eyes were calm and friendly, though they still glowed with a frenzied edge. "Yeah. Sure. What, is something wrong?"

Ruby scratched her head, the digits carving long paths along her scalp and bringing momentary relief to the young girl. "Well… I mean, you've been kinda cleaning a bunch. The team and I thought that if we did everything then you might take it easy for a night. But then I get up, and you're here freaking deep cleaning the fridge. You've just been doing a lot lately. I wanna make sure you're taking care of yourself."

Blake gave Ruby a strong, determined look that almost frightened Ruby. "Don't worry. I'm fine."

Then she turned around and went back to her task.

Again, Ruby wanted to say something, but she felt there was nothing left she could. So, she just stood there, watching as Blake hastily and angrily collected all her things. She moved like a hurricane, bounding throughout the room. Eventually, Ruby realized that, at least right now, there was nothing she could do, so she went about getting ready herself.

After a few minutes in deafening silence, Yang exited the bathroom. The door cracked against the wall as Yang swung it open. A gaseous cloak of steam surrounded the girl as she strolled out.

"Ahh, that was so nice." Yang exhaled gleefully.

Yang normally was dead to the world until a shower. Some people needed coffee, others just some time. Yang just needed hot water to wake up. Ruby figured it had something to do with her semblance.

Yang, who now wore the skirt and half buttoned shirt of the beacon student uniform, climbed up to her bed, laid lazily across it, and got lost in her scroll.

Ruby busied herself looking for her textbooks. While she was hard at work, wondering where she could have put them last, a loud guttural noise, like a throat clearing, caught Ruby's attention. She looked up to see Blake leveling an expectant look at her.

The black-haired girl moved her eyeballs purposefully to the left, and tiled her head in the same direction, as if she was trying to silently send a message to Ruby.

The young leader looked was confused initially and looked around in the direction Blake seemed to ask her too. To Ruby, all that could see was the left wall. She shot a confused gaze towards Blake.

"What?" Ruby mouthed.

Blake sighed. "Hey, Ruby. The show's open if you still wanted to use it."

Oh, That. They had talked about that, didn't they? Ruby fetched a shower from her dresser and turned around.

She meant to go to the bathroom to bathe herself, as the two of them had decided earlier, but when she took the first step, she became plagued with second thoughts.

Her eyes scanned over her wired and worn teammate. "Hey, Blake. Are you sure you don't want to shower first? I really don't mind."

Her brows raised, and she purposefully looked straight at Ruby. "Ruby. It's okay. Please, take a shower."

Ruby didn't move. "But… But."

"Really, it's fine." Blake pressed on. She then sat down on her bed, though the act of sitting somehow looked as though it took more effort than standing up for her. She sat like a stereotypical teenage boy, with her legs far apart. Her back was straight up, and the heels of her feet kept bouncing back and forth on the ground, like she was having trouble standing still.

Ruby took one last look at the red and brown patches on Blake's previously white tank top. The thing would have to be thrown out, but she doubted Blake would listen to her if she said that. She would maintain that, like her, there was really nothing wrong with it. Well, Ruby wasn't going to let this keep going.

She threw the towel in Blake's direction.

"No. You go first. I'll shower last."

Blake snatched the towel out of the air with a veiny hand, bringing it to her side, she met Ruby's glare with a pointedly neutral stare.

"Ruby, we've been going back and forth over this all morning. Please, just get in the shower so we both have time to-"

As she listened to the words, Ruby felt her frustrations rising. This wasn't okay. Blake wasn't okay. And if she wasn't going to realize it, Ruby would have to make her.

"Nope," she cut the older girl off with a voice sweet like honey, "You're gonna shower first."

Blake glared at her in surprised offense. Her mouth sat open momentarily, but then her face shifted to that of one with indifferent acceptance.

"I mean, if that's what you want." She casually said with a shake of her head, already rising from her seated position on the bed.

xxxxxxxx

Her vascular, pale hands settled on her knees and pushed off them. Ruby thought for a moment that her twig-like arms would snap under the weight. Her pronounced veins seemed to snake and slither just beneath her patchy and irritated white skin. Once she stood straight, she teetered for a moment, as her eyes clouded. Ruby thought for sure she would fall over and even began to move towards Blake to catch her, but just then, Blake took a deep breath and got her bearings. After that, she started to limp slightly towards the bathroom, her bones cracking shallowly but constantly like an old man's the whole time.

"Man," Yang quipped loudly from where she laid atop her bed. "I thought the only things cracking around here were my jokes."

"Very funny, Yang." Blake deadpanned as she continued to walk towards the bathroom.

Ruby was having trouble believing that this was really happening. Was it this easy to get Blake to, well, take care of herself in the most basic of ways?

"That's it? No more arguments?" Ruby asked, more out of honest disbelief than anything.

Blake turned her head a little to the left as she kept walking. Not enough that Ruby could see her eyes, but enough that the tip of her nose poked out from beyond the mass of her frayed, messy hair.

"It really doesn't matter.," she said shrugging her shoulders, "I just thought you would want to go first."

"That I would…" Ruby's words got caught in her throat. Blake kept walking towards the bathroom.

Finally, just before Blake could enter, Ruby managed to force out, "Blake… You don't have to worry about what I want. You should worry about you…"

Blake turned a disinterested gaze towards Ruby as her skeletal fingers clutched the doorknob. "You know, you're getting really worked up over a shower. If it's really that big of a deal, I'll just start taking mine as soon as possible every day…" She trailed off as she turned the doorknob.

The sheets beneath Ruby's fingers tightened as she felt a wave of emotion bubble up within her. Words that she knew were a bad idea to say came boiling out of her. "That's because your being so nonchalant about this!" Ruby nearly shouted.

Blake visibly flinched at Ruby's tone. Her shoulders rose and while the rest of her seemed to shrink, like water being pulled into a straw. Ruby's breath came out in shallow pants, her admittance taking more out of her than it should have. An uneasy silence settled over the room.

"Well," Yang said at un unnecessarily loud volume as she instantly shot up in her bed, "I can see you too have something to talk about, so I'm just gonna hang outside for a few. Come get me when you're done, but don't take too long. Mama's still got to do her hair, you know."

And with that Yang leapt from her bed and sauntered out the door, the thud of its closing doing nothing to ease the tension between the two huntresses.

Ruby _really _shouldn't have said that. What was she thinking? Blake was right there, about to clean herself. Ruby was about to get what she wanted, but she just had to say something, didn't she? And now, she had to have this big ol' talk with Blake about how she was pushing herself too hard. Ruby had planned for this to be a team-wide talk, one where Yang would preferably do most of the talking. But it would seem that her sister had abandoned her. Again. Man, what was it with Beacon and Yang always leaving when Ruby needed her the most? Ruby didn't know how to do this! She couldn't have actual emotional conversations! They didn't teach that at signal, and Qrow certainly didn't show her how. She was ill equipped for the task at hand.

Still though, what hero ever was prepared for the obstacles before them?

"Do you have something you would like to talk to me about, Ruby?" Blake suddenly asked. Her tone was polite enough, but her eyes told a different story. While not angry, per say, they shined with a dangerous focus, one that made Ruby nearly gulp just by looking at them.

"Well, uh, I…Um?"

"Ruby, spit it out."

Ruby's eyes slammed shut in instinctual fear. "AHH I THINK YOUR LIKE PUSHING YOURSELF TOO HARD AND MAKING YOURSELF HANG OUT WITH PEOPLE YOU REALLY DON'T LIKE OKAY THERE I SAID IT!"

Ruby kept her eyes closed. If she had her hood on, she would have hidden beneath it. For now, the surface of the bed, which Ruby clung to for dear life, would have to do. She could take on hordes upon hordes of Grimm without even the slightest flinch, but talking to people, that was the real challenge.

"Anything else?" Blake asked in a flat and unfeeling voice that sounded louder than a pack of howling beewolves in the room's steep silence.

This was a horrible idea. Ruby shouldn't have done this. It might have even been the biggest blunder she'd ever made.

_Abort mission, ABORT MISSION, _Ruby chanted in her head.

Still, as much as she willed it, Ruby could not take back the things that had been said. She carefully cracked one eye open and chanced a look Blake, who stood straight and looked right at Ruby almost expectantly.

Ruby felt the urge to shrink away again but bit it back. She was a big girl, she drank milk, and she could have normal conversations with people.

She hoped.

Ruby sat up in her bed, ready to face the consequences of her actions. She looked Blake right in the eyes, a stalwart defiance in Ruby's own. She thought about how she would heal this girl through tough love, how she would make her see her own self-worth. She formed the words in her head which would allow her to peel back the layers of this poor, wounded soul and nurse it back to normalcy, like all the heroes did in her stories in one point did. She looked at Blake, one last time, steeling her resolve…

Then she totally chickened out.

"Ah he ha. Yeah. Sorry about that. Guess I got a bit carried away." Ruby laughed nervously as she scratched the back of her head.

_Buy It, Buy it, Buy it, Buy it! _Ruby chanted inwardly. She would just have this conversation another day, one where she was better prepared for it. Ruby knew that Blake had problems, but right now, she was afraid that she could only make them worse. Ruby didn't know how to talk to people! That was Yang's job! All that Ruby could realistically accomplish was messing the whole thing up and making Blake close herself off further and Ruby didn't want that.

Blake raised a single, knowing eyebrow and crossed her arms, crushing Ruby's dreams.

Ruby sighed loudly. "I guess that's not gonna fly, then?"

"Not after a confession like that."

Ruby had to then ask herself why bad things happened to good people. Again, she sighed, accepting her fate. "Yeah… I guess, I donno, I just see you looking so depressed all the time, especially when you're hanging out with Velvet and Henry." Ruby was unable to meet Blake's eyes as she weakly spoke the words. Instead, her vision lingered on the satin sheets surrounding her.

"And you can hang out with who ever you want to," Ruby was quick to add, worried that Blake might think she was getting jealous or something like that, "it's just that ever since you started hanging out with them, you haven't…seemed yourself, you know?"

Blake said nothing, staring at Ruby unflinchingly. The young leader took the silence as a que to continue.

"You started hovering over them like a hawk, all the time. Even though you didn't really talk to us before, it felt like you had distanced yourself. I mean, we never see you in the dorm room anymore, except during the mornings and when one of us is still awake when you get back late at night."

Ruby felt like she had a compressing chain wrapped around her chest as she admitted these things to her sister's partner, but she pressed on, nonetheless, eager to break that chain so it wouldn't continue to constrict around her forever.

"And then the cleaning! You'd think we had hired a maid! Heck, even Weiss is concerned, and she loved your," Ruby made air quotes, "_realized motivation_, at first."

Ruby met Blake's eyes, and whished that if she only got one message out of this conversation, it would be this one:

"I just want you to be okay. You know you can talk to us, right? We're your team, you know."

Normally this was the time in the heart to heart where she would feel Yang's or her father's encompassing arms wrap around her and pull her close. Once Ruby was honest, and told the other person how she felt, the problem was always solved, and things went back to normal.

But the seconds ticked by, and there was no reconciliation. There was no tight, all encompassing hug. There was no promise that everything would be alright.

Blake paced back and forth by the door. Her hand on her forehead. Where she had previously seemed indifferent, numb, and apathetic, she was now clearly distraught. No tears flowed, but her skin was clearly flushed red and her face was contorted with stress.

"Blake?..." Ruby chanced.

Blake shook her head, as if surfacing herself from deep thought. "Yeah, sorry."

She then brought her now bright, intense eyes to Ruby. "I get what you're saying, but this is something I have to do. I'm not hurting myself, and I'm certainly not miserable. Thank you for your concern, but I can take care of myself."

She then turned around and opened the door to the bathroom.

"Blake, wait!" Ruby pleaded, reaching out as if she could touch the other girl.

But it was too late. The girl nearly slammed the door shut, leaving Ruby alone in the dorm room. She breathed deep, bringing her own hand up to massage her temples. _I knew I would just make it worse. Man, Yang, why did you have to ditch me?_

Almost as if on que, the door to the dorm cracked open loudly. Ruby looked down to see who was coming in. A head of Blonde poked in through the opening. It then looked up towards Ruby. Yang flashed a big, bright and hopeful smile. "Soooo, how'd it go?"

Ruby's eyes settled in on her sister, on her bright eyes, optimistic grin, and her overall cheerful attitude.

She'd never had to restrain herself before from using Crescent Rose on someone as much as she did in that moment.

Sometime later, most of team JNPR and most of team RWBY walked side by side through the crowded halls of Beacon towards their breakfast. The hall was filled with the sounds of footsteps, unintelligible conversation, and other noises of passing students, but Ruby paid them no mind. Her thoughts were on her totally colossal failure this morning, and how Ozpin had to have like, picked team leaders by drawing names out of a hat or something…

Ruby stomped her feet, grumbling out grievances under her breath as she stormed forwards.

Then, A familiar arm and fell down Ruby's chest as a familiar weight settled on her shoulders. Ruby's teeth started grinding.

"Don't get all touchy with me right now, Yang. I'm still mad at you!" Ruby growled.

Her sister drew back, holding out her hands in front of her like she had been caught stealing at a grocery store. "Woah, sorry. Didn't know someone was still holding a grudge."

Ruby scowled at the blonde, throwing her hands in the air, "Of course, I'm still mad, Yang. You ditched me. AGAIN!" she yelled.

Yang cocked her head to the side, a coy smile creeping onto her lips. "Ditch you? What? No, I was just… giving you impromptu training. Yeah, that's it."

Ruby crossed her arms, shifted her weight to her back leg, and gave her sister a mean, unbelieving stare that would have made Weiss proud. "Yeah, impromptu training for what?"

Her Sister looked left and right awkwardly, perhaps searching for an answer in Beacon's hallways. "Pssh, oh… I don't know. Things?"

Ruby leaned in, continuing to give Yang the evilest eye that Ruby had ever made. "Things, huh? Care to _elaborate." _

Yang scratched her head and ran a hand through her hair. "Oh you know, like… social stuff? Maybe… breaking out of your shell. I mean, come on girl, you had to have your first fight sometime or another."

"What?" Ruby shrieked, leaning back slightly and shaking her head. "I've had fights before. I had lots at Signal."

"Could you two quiet down please? I am not in the mood to hear your incessant arguing." Weiss stated coldly as she filed her nails. One might think that walking and manicuring was too difficult a task to attempt, but Weiss had always done so, right from the very beginning of school.

Yang growled at the heiress but said nothing. If Weiss even heard Yang, she ignored it. Yang then turned back to her sister.

She crossed her arms, resolve beaming in her eyes. "Anyway, that Doesn't count. Those were little kids whining. Also, can you name one fight that I didn't fix for you?"

A memory shot through Ruby like liquid lightning. She rammed her finger up in the air. "Ahh, that one time, where Mrs. McGuffin thought I cheated on a test, so I came back and took the whole thing again alone with her."

Ruby stared victoriously at her sister. Yeah, Ruby knew stuff. She could solve problems. Or, at least she thought she did. After that talk with Blake this morning she wasn't so sure.

Yang sighed loudly, rubbing her forehead. "I can see this is going to take a while." She seemed to say more to herself than to Ruby.

She still heard it though, and she was already preparing a rebuttal. The words started to rise like fire in her little windpipe when all of the sudden a voice cut her off.

"My," Pyrrha happily exclaimed before Ruby could respond. All eyes were drawn to the young champion. She smiled and looked over the present members of team RWBY with glee.

"You all certainly make a good team."

As soon as Pyrrha said that, Ruby was blindsided. She shared a look with her equally confused teammates. Heck, even Weiss was so dumbstruck she stopped grinding her nails.

That never happens!

"Really?" Ruby asked slowly. "What makes you think that? It's not like we're acting like a shining example of camaraderie right now."

Pyrrha giggled, bringing up her hand to conceal her mouth. "Well, it's like old friends fighting. You all… get each other, I suppose. It's nice to see."

When Pyrrha's words entered Ruby's head, she thought of this morning, she thought off all the problems that had plagued team RWBY since initiation, such as the problems with Weiss, which thankfully had since been resolved, unlike the problem with Blake, which was still fiercely active. They didn't _get _each other. In fact, all they had seemed to be doing was getting on each other's nerves.

"Yeah…" Ruby said sheepishly, looking down at her feet. "I don't know about that…"

As soon as those words had crossed Ruby's lips, another redhead appeared right in front of Ruby, so close that Ruby could see the whites of tiny hairs on her arms. "No, it's true!" Nora exclaimed, "There's like this weird chemistry between all of you that you don't see with the other teams. Heck, sometimes my own team doesn't get on as well as yours does."

The words only seemed to remind Ruby further of the past week or so, and shame blossomed within her. Ruby awkwardly laughed, "Yeah, sorry to disappoint you guys, but we've got problems just like any other team."

Nora leaned in closer, one eye staring deeply into Ruby's face, like one might look into a telescope.

"Do tell…" Nora suggested, continuing her examination.

Ruby coughed into her hand and stepped back, trying to form some distance between her and Nora. It wasn't that she didn't like the girl, it was just that Ruby still wanted _some _personal space.

Nora looked a little confused at first but soon enough the truth dawned on her, or at least Ruby got that impression by the way her eyes widened suddenly and how she immediately backpedaled a few feet and gave Ruby an apologetic look.

"Yeah. Sorry. Guess sometimes I just get a little carried away." Nora chuckled weakly. "Lemme know if I'm like getting too close or being to loud or something." She expressed in a voice that was _far to sad _for Nora.

And well, when someone Apologized like that, how could Ruby stay mad?

She accepted people's apologizes.

Ruby scoffed. "Don't worry about it." She said in a dumb accent from some old Mistral crime movie.

Nora seemed pleased. She beamed right back up, holding her hands up above her head as she let out a quick, "Woo!"

Ren settled in behind her not a moment later, the two seeming to meld together as one being as they so often did. Ren held up a fist to Nora's side while maintaining eye contact with Ruby. Nora causally bumped her own fist against his without needing to see where it was either.

They both made explosion noises as they did this.

Nora was still adding sound effects and expanding her arms to exemplify her catastrophic detonations when Pyrrha stepped a little closer to Ruby. Not like Nora-close, there was still plenty of breathing room, but she closed the distance between them, nonetheless. She wore a worried, concerned expression, like that of a fretting mother.

"You said that your team was having trouble? You could talk to us about it, if you would like. We might be able to help, and maybe it would feel better to get it off your chest."

Ruby wasn't sure. She liked team JNPR, in fact they were her best friends outside of team RWBY, but should she really be doing that? Spreading team gossip like some kind of prissy schoolgirl that Yang always had to have a talking to? Again, Ruby didn't want to, as her Dad said, "Stir the pot."

"Well…" Ruby stalled, looking for her team for help.

"My oh my, Yang, your fighting scores seem to have gone up by yet **another **five points!" Weiss congratulated to Ruby's sister in a voice that felt fake even for Weiss. They were huddled next to each other and hovering over their scrolls. Their backs were turned to the rest of the group, and they were no doubt using the school's Dust-net portal to check their grades.

"Aww, thanks Weiss! Though I gotta admit that my combat improvements are nothing compared to your History scores. Sure, there was no improvement in your grade from last time, but who can fault you for that when it was a freaking hundred?" Yang praised Weiss in an equally manufactured voice, waving her hands dramatically above her head.

The two of them then shared a very, very forced laugh as they made absolutely no attempt to even look in Ruby's direction.

_Guuuyyss, Help me! _Ruby whined in her mind. She reached out for Yang, trying to get her sisters attention so that she wouldn't crash and burn like earlier.

Yang put a hand on Weiss's shoulder. "Hey, how about we go have a nice chat with Professor Oobleck. Maybe we can convince him to let you make even **higher **than a perfect grade. With how hard you work, he just might do it."

Ruby heard Weiss gasp as she reared her head back slightly. "Why Yang, and here I thought of you as a mindless brute. That is an _excellent_ idea. In fact, after we do that, I propose we do the same for you with Miss Goodwitch's combat course."

"Ahem!" Ruby cleared her throat loudly, staring daggers into her only remaining team members who were ignoring her when she desperately needed their help for the second time today!

"Yeah, that sounds awesome. Hey, why don't we go do that like right now!" Yang hurriedly rushed out both her words and her body. As soon as she finished the sentence, Weiss and Yang bolted down the hallway, the blonde plowing through poor uninvolved students who had the misfortune of standing in her way like a bowling ball knocks down pins.

"Wait Yang! Not again!" Ruby shouted as she watched her sister and her partner abandon her, the duo disappearing into the mass of students further down the hall.

Ruby again had to ask herself why bad things happened to good people.

Ruby sighed, turning around to see Pyrrha looking at her with that same worried expression. She held both hands over her heart and was staring intently into Ruby's eyes.

The younger girl laughed nervously. "Hehe, is it okay if I say that I don't want to talk about this?"

Pyrrha's moth opened to speak, but she was cut off as another voice entered the fray.

"You don't have to sound so apologetic when you don't feel like talking, you know."

Ruby whipped her head back so quickly she might have damaged it. "Blake?"

The raven-haired girl offered Ruby a kind smile. She held her hands clasped at her waist in front of her. On either side of her was one of her new friends, where the boy with an elephant trunk, Henry, was staring intently into his scroll. If Ruby listened closely, she could hear what sounded like the clash of weapons along with epic symphonic music coming from the electronic. The girl with bunny ears, Velvet, was absentmindedly looking around the room and playing with her thumbs as if she was bored.

But Ruby's eyes didn't remain on those two for long. They quickly found their way back to her estranged teammate. Or where they really estranged. Was Blake offering an olive branch?

"Blake, I'm **so **sorry." Ruby implored, stepping slightly in her teammates direction and looking directly into her eyes so she would understand Ruby's sincerity.

Ruby was about to go off on a tangent when Blake stepped forward and held out one flat opened palmed hand towards Ruby. Her next words almost made Ruby shed tears, and Ruby was a big girl who drank her milk, so that was a big deal!

"Ruby," Blake stated simply. "It's okay."

**A/N:**

**So yeah, another chapter. I kept this one a little longer than I had planned to. It was technically 'done' about 3 days ago, but I kept it to review and edit it until I liked the way it looked. **

**So this is a more Ruby-centric chapter. Don't worry, this is still a story about Blake. I just thought that the events in this part would feel better if told from Ruby's perspective, and that telling it from her pov would help set up future plot points. **

**Also, I know that in cannon, Yang is the one who tries to get Blake out of depressive episodes, not Ruby. The main reason that it is different here, and I will freely admit it, is that the plot demands it. **

**Normally, that is a bad thing, or at least in my opinion. You don't force characters to take actions that they wouldn't take just to progress the story, but here, I don't think it's TOO big of a stretch for either character. I could argue that Yang didn't know Blake well enough or feel comfortable enough around her to have a personal talk with her like that. I could also argue that Ruby also wouldn't feel comfortable around Blake, but would be desperate enough for friends, and committed enough to doing the 'right thing,' that she wouldn't care and would try to help her anyway. **

**At the end of the day, however, you can do whatever you want with Fanfiction, it's your interpretation of the characters. I try to keep them close to cannon unless the whole point is that they are different from how they are in the show. Sometimes, however, you have to ask yourself not what did happen in cannon, but what COULD HAVE happened. **

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter. I had fun writing it. **


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